PM: NEED TO REVIEW AG’S OFFICE MANDATE

LOBAMBA – Prime Minister Russell Dlamini says the mandate of the Auditor General’s (AG) Office needs to be reviewed.

This is contained in written responses to the quarterly performance report of the Prime Minister’s office, that were tabled in Parliament yesterday. The responses were tabled by the House of Assembly Portfolio Committee Chairperson and Mtfongwaneni Member of Parliament (MP), Nathi Hlophe. The PM, in his responses, was asked to clarify the statement he made about the AG’s Office and its reports during an Editors’ Forum meeting that was held in June this year. Since then, the PM had not attended a normal sitting in the House of Assembly, but came last week to present the quarterly performance report.

The PM, during the meeting, was asked about his take on the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) report that was produced by the AG’s Office, as well as the controversy around the NDMA’s bookkeeping, during his tenure as chief executive officer of the agency. The PM stated that he felt that the AG’s approach to NDMA’s financial audits had malicious intentions. The statement led to the suspension of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) sittings, as the MPs sought guidance from the attorney general.

Opinion

The Attorney General, Sifiso Khumalo, told Parliament that the PM was just expressing a personal opinion and the PAC should not have suspended its sittings. During the quarterly performance report and budget debate of the PM’s Office yesterday, the PM was asked to explain what he meant by ‘incompetence in the AG’s Office’. The PM was also asked if he believed the AG’s office was capable of safeguarding the public purse, by ensuring that government officials were not mismanaging public funds and if indeed, the statement was a personal opinion.

The MPs who requested the clarity were Lobamba MP Masilela, Mayiwane MP Sicelo Dlamini and Kubuta MP Masiphula Mamba. In the written responses, the PM stated that the office of the AG also acknowledged that it needed capacity. “The Office of the Auditor General agreed that they needed capacity and that there should be a review of their mandate,” states the written responses. On the issue of the statement being a personal opinion, the PM stated that the situation in its entirety lied within the ambits of interpretation and understanding of the different roles and responsibilities of the parties concerned.

The PM said his office recognised that the AG’s office was committed to investigating the misappropriation of public funds. “Despite the issues of capacity raised above, the Office of the Auditor General is doing a fairly good job,” stated the PM in the written responses. He went on to highlight the need to capacitate the Public Accounts Committee and recommended the work that the committee had done in terms of recovering funds and bringing officials to book.

Acknowledged

The PM also stated that the very same PAC also acknowledged that they needed to be capacitated. He was referring to the PAC Chairperson and Deputy Speaker, Madala Mhlanga, who asked the PM to look into capacitating the committee in order to be efficient in carrying out its mandate. The PM said they would continue to identify gaps for committees, including the PAC and arrange necessary capacity building programmes. Worth noting, the PAC is one of the committees of Parliament whose mandate is prescribed in the 2005 Constitution of Swaziland (Eswatini). The committee works with the AG’s office to ensure accountability and responsible utilisation of public funds in the public sector.

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