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AG REVEALS ROT AT SWAZILAND SKILLS CENTRES

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MBABANE – Mystery surrounds how government spent over E8 million on an alleged privately-owned organisation despite that there was no Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two.


The Report of the Auditor General for the Financial Year ended March 31, 2018 has uncovered an anomaly in the operations of the Swaziland Skills Centres.


The AG, Timothy Matsebula, stated in the report that he alerted the controlling officer in the Ministry of Education and Training that the ministry had paid public funds amounting to E8 889 761 00 in the year ended March 31, 2018 to a privately-owned organisation.


The amount, according to the AG, comprised a subvention of E4 303 721 00 and an additional payment of E4 586 040 00, which was for salaries of instructors and centre managers.


Arrangement


The AG said he notified the controlling officer that such an act had been going on since 1994 but that there was no formal arrangement or agreement, such as a signed MoU which would spell out terms of the relationship that was created between government and the Swaziland Skills Centres.


“An MoU that established the organisation on September 1994, revealed that the entity was a non-profit making organisation which was owned by Lawrence McDonnell, Judith Allen and David Harold Stocks, but there was no evidence that any of these owners were representing government in the organisation,” the AG said.


He said such a state of affairs posed a risk of loss to government property.
He said he was further informed that the Swaziland Skills Centres, which was trading as the Manzini Industrial Training Centre (MITC), also owned the Nhlangano Industrial Skills Training Centre (NISTC) and the Siteki Industrial Training Centre (SITC).


“Worth noting is that ownership of these properties was not clearly defined. The controlling officer did not explain to me why the land and buildings for the NISTC and SITC, which are government property, were now regarded as properties in this privately-owned organisation,” the AG stated.


He said he was also informed that the MITC land was allegedly owned by the Diocesan Trust Board of the Anglican Church, while the buildings on it were constructed using funds which were received through the Government of Eswatini as donations.


He said in a letter dated July 26, 2018, and addressed to the commissioner in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, he noted that the Board of Directors of the Swaziland Skills Centres had resolved that the company be liquidated.


“Should this entity go into liquidation, there is a risk that the government may lose its properties. Hence, the need to formalise the relationship between these two distinct entities, as this may also affect about 80 employees and 527 citizens who benefit in the training services provided by this institution,” the AG said.


He lamented that the ministry’s controlling officer, in a letter dated December 18, 2019 did not address the issue of how the privately-owned organisation was granted a subvention without any document which formally regulated the working relationship between it and the Government of Eswatini.


He said during the audit, the controlling officer submitted an unsigned and undated MoU which also did not provide the terms of reference, stating the intended purpose for the government grants.


Endorsed


“In the absence of any endorsed document formalising the operational and financial relationship between these two organisations, I considered the payment of the public funds, to such an institution, as irregular, and worth reporting to Parliament so that corrective action may be taken,” he stated.

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