PAC: COMPANY COLLECTING SCHOLARSHIPS SHOULD CONTINUE, BUT ...

MBABANE – The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) says the contract of the company engaged to recover scholarships should continue under close monitoring.
This comes after the PAC scalded the Controlling Officer and Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Makhosini Mndawe, for not honouring Parliament is resolution. According to the PAC recommendations on the Auditor General’s Financial Audit Report on Government Accounts for the financial year ended on March 31, 2021, the controlling officer was urged to review the contract between government and the scholarship recovery company, because the PAC felt the nature of the contract was prejudicial to government, since the services provided by the contractor could easily be provided by the Ministry of Public Service and the Treasury Department.   

The PAC of the 11th Parliament and the 12th Parliament said they felt that the company should only be engaged to collect from the private sector and outside the borders, not for civil servants since the Treasury Department can easily do that and the funds use to pay the company could boost other sectors. When the Ministry of Labour and Social Security was before the PAC, the controlling officer told the PAC that the contract was renewed in 2023 for a period not exceeding three years. Mndawe told the PAC that ever since the private company was engaged, there had been a huge improvement in terms of recovering the government study loans from beneficiaries. The PS stated that government tried to collect the loans from beneficiaries on its own, but due to inefficiencies, they roped in the company. He said government received an average of E65 million per year that is collected by the consultant. He stated that the consultant was entitled to 10 per cent of the total collection.

Discovery

Following the discovery, the PAC visited the company. During the PAC’s visit to the company, the committee was reportedly taken through the operations of the consortium and they were able to respond to questions that were posed by the MPs, who are members of the PAC. The aim of the visit according to the source was to see the expertise applied to collect study loans from beneficiaries among other things. The PAC Chairperson Madala Mhlanga when he was asked about that visit, said the PAC resolved that, before making a recommendation on the matter, they needed to visit the consortium offices to get first-hand information to make an informed decision when making a recommendation regarding the non-compliance with the House Resolution. In the 2024 PAC recommendations report that was adopted by Parliament, the PAC said the signed contract between government and the company should continue under strict monitoring.“The controlling officer is, therefore, urged to continue as per the agreement and ensure that progress and performance of the company is monitored,” says the recommendation.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: