SCHOLARSHIP LOANS TEAM VIOLATES CONTRACT

MBABANE – The SV Mdladla-led consortium violated the terms of the recovery of scholarship loans contract as they were paid 50 per cent of the contract value despite failing to deliver within the stipulated time frame.
The contract stated that 50 per cent of the contract price would be paid on the successful completion of Phase One.

In fact, the report compiled by the office of the Auditor General Phestecia Nxumalo, in the Performance Audit Report in 2014 on the recovery of scholarship loans which the Times SUNDAY had seen made it clear that the payment of half the value of the contract to the consortium had been a violation of the contract itself.

It was discovered that the consortium was paid 50 per cent of the contract sum despite only having completed 37.5 per cent (12/32 outputs) of the project.
This, she said in her report, was because the contract stipulated that the consultants who were to be paid E2 895 543 for the whole project were to be paid 50 per cent of the contract price on the successful completion of phase one.
Three companies; namely, Trans Union Swaziland (Leading firm), DataNet and SV Mdladla and Associates, are entrusted with the responsibility of collecting the outstanding monies.

 According to the report, the Times SUNDAY  has obtained, the project was divided into two phases; the first was to deal with administrative, legal, financial and institutional aspects of the scholarship management system while the second phase was to deal with the IT system development, integration testing and training of staff.

 At the time of compiling this report, none of the expected outputs for phase two were executed and achieved, since the execution had not yet started. This means that the consultants were already far behind schedule.
This was in violation of the contract, which stated that 50 per cent of the contract price would be paid on the successful completion of Phase One.
The Times SUNDAY has learnt that the consultants were working without a binding agreement since the initial contract expired on June 30, 2013.
Moreover, at the time of compiling this report, none of the expected 16 outputs for phase two had been executed and achieved.
This means that the consultants were far behind schedule.
In a nutshell, the consultants were expected to create a robust system for the recovery of scholarship loans owing from all former beneficiaries, develop and enable a legal framework for the award of scholarships and to establish a revolving scholarship loan fund.

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