CRY THE BELOVED ESWATINI TAXPAYER

Sir,

Two screaming headlines in last week’s edition of this newspaper titled ‘How government scholarships became ‘free-for-all’ and ‘Mystery over unaccounted E81million from elderly grants..’, respectively, convinced some of us that the claims by government that there is no money are just hogwash aimed at pulling the wool over our eyes in a devious attempt to tax the hapless and doomed taxpayer to death.

Reading through these articles convinced many of us that taxpayers’ money is lost either through corrupt manipulation of guidelines or procedures, as well as porous accounting practices which seem to be open to abuse and manipulation. In fact, I dare say the checks and balances in some departments accounting systems are as loose and porous as a sex worker’s undergarments. I offer no apology for this analysis.

The alleged abuse of the government in-service tertiary scholarship programme meant to benefit civil servants, but is alleged to have instead benefitted mostly the Who’s Who in some public enterprise ministries, smacks on corruption of the highest order. No wonder there is so much poor service delivery in some civil servants because they are deprived of opportunities that would enhance or advance their skills in the public service domain.

abused scholarship monies

It is small comfort that efforts are now being made to recoup the abused scholarship monies from the high profile individuals who benefitted from the in-service tertiary scholarship programme. Closing the stable door long after the horse had bolted? You bet! Heads must roll and those who awarded these tertiary scholarships must be brought to book - period. Sadly, since corruption in this country is unofficially condoned, nothing will be done to whosoever was derelict in his or her duties.

The second headline detailing how uncollected elderly grants that were distributed through the Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (EPTC) were not remitted after every financial quarter,  goes a long way in suspiciously pointing to the fact that somewhere, somehow, big, fat, long-tailed, two - legged grey rats are helping themselves to the unremitted monies.

I always feel pity for the incumbent Auditor General, who is in office during each particular financial year, who always exposes the rot in accounting systems of some government ministries, but nothing seems to be done to correct the anomalies, let alone any efforts being made to bring to book those responsible for each mess in the accounting systems.

the AG’s findings

How in your sanest faculties do you explain, for instance, the AG’s findings that there was a closing balance of E6 378 387.52 as at June 30, 2018 in respect of uncollected social grants which was not remitted back to government? This is, according to the AG, violating procedure and Service Level Agreement between government and EPTC under responsibilities of SwaziPost which state that grants that had not been collected by beneficiaries should be remitted back to the government after every financial reporting quarter?

No wonder the AG’s concerns that the unremitted funds have a negative impact on government’s cash flow position. Then the people are expected to believe that the coffers of government are dry when unremitted monies cannot be accounted for? If this is not the joke of the century, then my name is Bill Gates!

unnecessarily allocated

The AG’s suspicions that these funds could have been unnecessarily allocated to deceased and or unknown beneficiaries, rings the alarm bells. Advice availed to the controlling officer to make follow ups by the AG seem not to have been heeded to because there was no evidence of verification done by the office.

The damning clincher in the AG’s report was, quote: “I am therefore concerned that the uncollected funds are susceptible to misappropriation, theft, and fraud...” Spot on, Mr. AG! He worriedly raised his concerns that social grants amounting to E130 835 were collected by proxies on behalf of deceased beneficiaries. Preposterous and shocking! There are no guidelines for the disbursement of social grants, according to the AG. This was despite that he had previously, advised through an audit report issued in August 2012 that such guidelines should be developed. I give up!

Unless and until there is a political will to follow and take drastic actions following to the recommendations of the perennial AG’s reports, the rot will continue unabated in the government’s accounting systems and the hogwash that there is no money will continue to irk us. The two - legged mice will continue reaping surreptitiously “imali yetinyembeti”
Cry the beloved Eswatini taxpayer! Shalom!

Alex Nxumalo 76058449

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: