POLICE SLAPPED WITH E107M WATER, ELECTRICITY BILLS

MBABANE – The Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) has been slapped with water and electricity bill amounting to E107.17 million.

However, REPS argues that the huge water bill was caused by a water pipe leakage. Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula had queried the exorbitant expenditure of water and electricity bills, prompting the House of Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to investigate the matter. This is contained in the PAC’s recommendations on the AG’s Financial Audit reports on government accounts of the financial years ended on March 31, 2022 and 2023. The AG reported that the police service incurred  exorbitant  expenditure  in  respect  of  water  and electricity  amounting  to  E107 174 051.16  under  the  responsibility  Centre  1101 - Headquarters,  in  the  financial  year  ended March 31, 2023.

According to the AG, the water expenditure amounted to E66 267 377.72 and electricity bill was E40 906 673.44. Responding to the issue of expenditure, the PAC reports that the controlling officer, being the office of the National Commissioner (NatCom) of Police attributed the over expenditure on the water bill to pipe leakages. The current NatCom is Vusi Manoma Masango. The office of the NatCom said the pipes were old and worn out, while the high electricity bill was due to high consumption.

In order to address the issue, police told the PAC that plumbers have been engaged to fix the leaking pipes and a borehole will be used to supply water to all the Matsapha Police camps and the Police Academy. Regarding the electricity, they said they had started a programme of introducing separate meters in the police quarters, which will be paid for by the officers occupying those houses.  In its recommendations, the PAC resolved to defer the matter pending a site visit to the police stations and camps to verify the veracity of the controlling officer’s response.

On another note, the AG reported that there were significant unappropriated excess expenditures amounting to E62 337 528.04 incurred by the police service in the financial year ended on March 31, 2023. This comprises unappropriated  excess  expenditure  on CTA  vehicle charges amounting to E6 557 492.65 under the Traffic Section and unappropriated excess expenditure on personnel  costs  amounting  to  E55,774,628.20  under  various  responsibility centres; unappropriated excess expenditure on travel, transport and communication amounting to  E4 379.90;  and  unappropriated excess expenditure on professional and  special services amounting to E1 027.29.

The matter is still under Parliament discussion.

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