IN IT FOR THE MONEY

Sir,

In this country, when it comes dolling out money for our politicians’ perks, there is always no hesitation. Government is always happy to fork out millions just so our politicians can be ferried around in comfort, while critical services for the ordinary emaSwati continue to deteriorate. The country’s health sector is screaming for help as many of the public hospitals are without basic pain medication and antibiotics. There is certainly no bang for the buck in this country, the important things in which government should be spending most of its money are always last to be considered.

Value

Half of the Boards and commissions have no value to the economy and are run in the shadows without any accountability and proper governance structures. They don’t even have websites where one could easily get information on what it is they are doing and how they are contributing to the economy in Eswatini. So here is a request to government; since there is serious money needed for these Boards and commissions to operate, government should establish a proper application process so that every qualified liSwati can be given a chance to be fed too. Everyone should get a piece of the government purse.

Government is supposed to do something about the poor public sector’s financial management that has consistently led the country to fiscal constraints. The truth is, without real austerity measures within government, the public purse will continue to bleed money just on maintaining the oversized government instead of focusing on service delivery.

Scholarship

Now, where could government spend all of these monies that are being showered to our politicians? Some of these million could be added to the scholarship fund to ensure that all of Eswatini’s high-school graduates get a decent tertiary education. And here is what should be said about the scholarship situation in this country: The money being recovered from the previous beneficiaries should pay the way forward for current scholarship seekers and should cover the full cost of their tertiary education needs. After all, they will have to pay back the money, so aspiring tertiary students should get every cent they need to pursue their studies. Investing in the country’s youth is far better than spending millions on the warm bodies occupying the seats of the different Boards and commissions.

Accountability

Given that the taxpayer’s money will be making millionaires out of our Members of Parliament including Board and commission members, there should be more accountability demanded out of these politicians because they come with a huge price tag to the economy. What we ask now is for the politicians and bureaucrats to take their jobs seriously and restore order to the government system so that service delivery can improve within all the various government ministries. For such as small economy, Eswatini sure does spend a serious buck on pampering its politicians. No wonder most are in it for the money rather than the betterment of all our lives as nation.

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