LOBAMBA – Despite tabling voluminous reports every financial year, the PAC came under fire yesterday, with MPs arguing that it has failed to ensure accountability for the misuse of public funds.
One Member of Parliament (MP) went as far as likening the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to a scarecrow, saying it merely frightens offenders without taking any meaningful action against them.
By definition, a scarecrow is an object that looks like a person dressed in old, torn clothes and that stands in a garden or field to frighten birds away.
Meanwhile, the criticism emerged during a debate on the adoption of the Report on Updates on Public Accounts Committee Recommendations on the Auditor General’s 2021 Compliance Audit Report and the Compliance Report for the Financial Year ended March 31, 2024.The MPs from across the political spectrum agreed that although the Auditor General (AG), Timothy Matsebula, continued to expose financial irregularities, the same audit findings kept recurring because little or no action was taken against those responsible.
The debate also shifted attention to Parliament itself, with legislators arguing that the House needed to make full use of its constitutional oversight powers to ensure that recommendations made by the PAC translated into tangible action.
Nhlambeni MP Manzi Zwane was among the first to contribute to the debate. He observed that many government ministries and departments only become concerned about audit findings when they were summoned to appear before the PAC, instead of addressing shortcomings immediately after they have been raised by the AG.
He further questioned why experienced officers serving in foreign missions were not being brought back home to contribute their expertise within government institutions and even in national leadership, arguing that their experience could be better utilised.
However, it was Mbabane East MP Welcome Dlamini who delivered the strongest criticism of the committee, saying after reading the report, he questioned what exactly Parliament was being asked to adopt when many investigations remained incomplete.
“The PAC is now like a scarecrow; it does not bite. No action is being taken,” Dlamini said. He referred to findings relating to the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), where the report indicated that 84 senior officials had allegedly received COVID-19 relief grants unlawfully.
He questioned why no visible disciplinary or criminal action had been taken against those implicated despite the matter having been highlighted in official reports. Dlamini argued that many of the recommendations contained in the report merely called for further verification, additional documentation or future investigations instead of providing conclusive outcomes.
He said Parliament was repeatedly being asked to adopt reports before investigations had been completed, making it difficult for MPs to assess whether wrongdoing had been proven or whether corrective measures had been implemented.
The MP also raised concerns about emergency procurement, saying Parliament should be furnished with comprehensive lists of suppliers awarded emergency contracts, the goods supplied and the amounts paid. Such disclosure, he argued, would enable Parliament to identify suppliers who inflate prices and exploit public emergencies for personal gain.
According to Dlamini, reports of procurement inflation running into tens of thousands of per cent could not simply be ignored. He said Parliament deserves to know who benefitted from such contracts and what sanctions have been imposed against those responsible. Turning to the issue of expired medicines, Dlamini urged the committee to provide full details on the quantities destroyed, the disposal companies involved and the costs incurred. He said persistent public speculation that expired medicines had become a lucrative business for some individuals could only be addressed through transparency and accountability.
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