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CIVIL SERVANTS OWE E3M TO GOVT IN UNPAID LOANS

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MBABANE – An disclosed number of civil servants are said to be owing government over E3 million in unpaid loans obtained through the Community Poverty Reduction Fund.


In total, government is owed over E15 million in respect of outstanding loans from this fund. This is according to the audit report of the Auditor General (AG) Phesticia Nxumalo for the financial year ended March 31, 2016.
The AG, in the report, said she noted that against the operational manual which stipulated that loans should fully repaid by the end of five years, the repayment process was very poor yet five years had elapsed since the loans were disbursed. “By March 2016, E4 834 010 had been repaid which is only 24 per cent of the E19 950 000 granted,” she said.


The report alleges that records revealed that over E3 million was owed by civil servants as at March 31, 2016.
The AG said she had noted that the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development had not started making means to recover these loans. She said there was a risk that some of these civil servants would retire or even die, making it impossible for the loans to be recovered.


She said already some of the civil servants had retired, died or resigned from the civil service rendering recovery of the debts impossible.
The AG said the controlling officer agreed that the loan repayment performance had been very poor, and that in an endeavour to try to speed up the process, the ministry had engaged a consultant who would forge a way forward on the best method to be undertaken in the future.


Also, a civil servant under the Ministry of health has to pay back more than E520 000 to the government.


The auditor general’s report alleges that the officer absconded from duty with effect from January 1, 2008 after she had been granted authority to study from February 2002 to December 2007.
The officer was pursuing medical studies at the University of Limpopo in South Africa.


She allegedly resumed work on February 2015 and the period from January 2008 to January 2015 was unaccounted for, and this is deemed as absconding from duty.
It is alleged that when the officer completed her studies, she did not resume work as expected and her whereabouts were unknown. “The officer breached her in-service training bond she signed on August 28, 2002, to serve government for a period of five years after completion of her course, before terminating her services,” the AG said.

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