YES, ROT IN PARASTATALS MUST END NOW

Surely by now, there can be few here who believe the purpose of government is to protect us from the destructive activities of corporations. At last, most of us must understand that the opposite is true: that the primary purpose of government is to protect those who run the economy from the outrage of injured citizens...” - Derrick Jensen, American author and eco-philosopher and radical environmentalist.

It came with a mild sense of shock, but with little or no surprise at all to some of us (that is, if you are adept at the art of reading between the lines) to read a front page headline, “ag: freeze government subventions for parastatals,” in Tuesday’s Times of Eswatini.

statements

In the article, the AG is alleged to have suggested that government should, “withhold subventions for public enterprises that do not submit audited financial statements”.

The article goes on to allege that for the Financial Year ended March 11, 2019, about “11 public enterprises have not been compliant in terms of submitting their audited, financial statements...” What boggles the mind is that one of the allegedly guilty enterprises is said to have last submitted its audited financial statements in 2016!

The AG made these startling observations during a media briefing held at the imposing Hilton Garden Inn, on Monday.
I do not envy the job of the Auditor General...neither do I envy that of the Accountant General. In fact...I read deeper between the lines, his subtle, cryptic but very telling and pointed observation that, “Eswatini Government is too strong”. Even though it is said he did not elaborate on what he meant, it does not need one to be the fictional, ace detective Sherlock Holmes to discern what he exactly meant!

Every financial year end - that is, ever since and for as long as my lately, senility-threatened memory can recall - the two patriotic and hardworking public servant individuals, (Auditor General and Accountant General, respectively), have relentlessly unearthed shocking and unsettling anomalies in the workings and adherence to the laid-down, operational procedures of some government departments as well as some government-subvented entities (parastatals).

subventions

Sadly, some of these anomalies keep rearing their ugly heads, with little or no effort being spared to address some of these shenanigans. Government continues to lose money through lack of proper controls, sound financial reporting and procedural measures.
The old Eswatini adage, “there is no hurry in Eswatini”, is incessantly being proven true, where government is concerned!

The Times of Eswatini’s editorial comment based on the article, could not have put it any better or other way, when it pointed out that, “for the Auditor General to convene a press conference on this issue yesterday, which is a first by the way, is a sign of a man who is tired of seeing money being pumped into public enterprises that cannot account how they utilised previous subventions...”. According to the AG, some invoices were, ‘fished out of drawers!’ Really?

You see, to some of us and insofar as we are concerned, government loses money not because of  ‘ibhadi’ (misfortune) but because of lack of a political will to read the Riot Act on all those implicated in shoddy practices. There is just no hurry or willingness at all to implement perennial recommendations made by the Auditor General, as well as the Accountant General.

A lot of money is being pumped yearly into some of these lackadaisical-in-adherence-to-accountability, parastatals and logic dictates that there must be accountability and transparency in how the pumped-in funds are being utilised.

 This is where the crucial submission of audited financial statements comes in. Last time I checked, money does not grow on trees. These monies pumped into the parastatals belong to someone or some people - me and you, who are the proverbial sacrificial lambs.

In this country, the taxpayer is regarded as a cash cow or Automated Teller Machine (ATM). We matter at all, neither to our government nor to some of these greedy parastatals, who are subvented by government through our own money. Some of them are hardly bothered or concerned about giving us value for our money.

Instead - more often than not - some of these corporate oligarchs are only intent on bleeding us dry of the last cent of our hard-earned monies by, for instance, callously increasing tariffs.

requirements

It is of little or no comfort at all to learn that a disciplinary tribunal is now in place to execute punitive measures against entities that do not comply. We know that this will most probably be a window dressing exercise than a serious concern. We have come to terms with and to be suspicious of probes whose findings rarely see the light of day.

If I can pose this question to the reader: What was the fate, for instance, of the 10th Parliament’s probe on the Asian influx? What happened to the MP Phila Buthelezi-led Public Accounts Committee (PAC) probe on the Nhlangano-Sicunusa Road mess...? Asengibindze.

Coming to the Boards that are close to some of the non-complying parastatals: are they not accountable to the taxpayer for seeing to it that the entities that they are close to comply with the requirements of Section 7 of the Public Enterprises Monitoring and Control Act, 1989, as well as the Public Enterprise Unit (PEU) Circular No.3 of 2008? The less said about the shameful keeping of crucial invoices in drawers, allegedly by principal secretaries, the better.
Government’s claim of being ‘broke’ raises more questions than answers! What do you make of the allegation by the AG that a whopping E10.9 million in uncollected revenue lies with different departments, companies and individuals? Seriously, asekuyekelwe lokudlala incatfu la kagogo!

procedures

Government needs every cent it is owed in order for her to provide crucial, service delivery among her other obligations. How many critical and lifesaving drugs, for instance, can the E10.9 million buy for health care centres? Revisit again the AG’s cryptic observation that, “the procurement process needs to be fixed...actually; I think government is TOO STRONG because this has been going on for years” (emphasis mine). This he said in relation to procurement irregularities in various, government ministries.

Need I say more? The AG in numerous, past reports, that is, if my memory serves me well, has incessantly and without fail, raised his deep concerns at the many irregularities in procurement procedures. This is where government loses millions. Is anything being done - ever - to plug this funds-draining loophole? Do not bother responding to that. After all...there is no hurry in Eswatini

We had high hopes that with the change of name from a Swaziland we now dearly miss, to Eswatini, it will bring with it welcomed fresh winds of change, like transparency and accounts...but asikabuti elangeni! The more things change, the more they get corrupt...oops! stay the same. Our legislators have promised to play their oversight role effectively this time around. Can we, or should we, trust them? Time will tell.

Alex Nxumalo 76058449

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