SENATE PRESIDENT COMES UNDER FIRE AGAIN

LOBAMBA – The first sitting of the PAC got off to an explosive start as Clerk to Parliament Ndvuna Dlamini sang like a canary. 

The clerk, who is the Parliament controlling officer, said his work was being interfered with by politicians and threatened to report this to the King. 

He alleged that meetings with the Parliament presiding officers and the prime minister, who was the minister responsible for Parliament business, had yielded no results which was why he wanted to escalate the issue to the country’s authorities. 

Implementation 

This happened yesterday when Ndvuna appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), where he was asked to give a picture of how far he had gone with the implementation of the PAC recommendations, in particular the use of vehicles by presiding officers. 

The other issue the clerk had to address was that of international trips where the auditor general found that Parliament had an over expenditure yet not all legislators had been afforded the chance to travel.     

This was when the clerk revealed that he had no control of trips undertaken by the politicians as most of them were awarded by the presiding officers in Senate President Lindiwe Dlamini and Speaker Petros Mavimbela. This then resulted in Ndvuna informing the committee that there was one presiding officer who was fond of travelling to New York. 

Although the controlling officer did not reveal any names, he kept referring to the presiding officer as a female and in the current crop of presiding officers only Senate President Lindiwe is female. 

He said the other challenge was that the presiding officer always travelled First Class, which was very expensive for government. 

Ndvuna alleged that there were trips which he had grounded, which were to be undertaken by one of the presiding officers and he received attitude from that officer. “I once asked if you are going to spend E400 000-E500 00 alone on a trip yet there are some legislators who have never travelled anywhere, what does that mean?” he said. 

The clerk to Parliament said he must be allowed to make a travelling plan which they should stick to. 

“For example, there is a presiding officer who likes to travel to New York. I will tell it all another day. She loves going to New York, First Class and the money that is spent on that is a lot,” he said. 

“If that officer did not travel then she ignores you and stops talking to you (uyakudvuba)”. 

He said when he told that presiding officer that there was no money for the trip, she would take you to task. 

He said, however, he had since developed a thick skin because every day he was threatened. 

“It’s part of the job, being a clerk is not for cry-babies,” he said.  When asked who the officer was, the Clerk said she was a she of course. 

Meanwhile, PAC member Lobamba MP Allen Stewart informed the clerk that he had told the PAC that he worked without fear of favour, but it was clear that he was sending an SOS call to the members to assist him.  He advised the clerk to stick to his duties whether he was threatened or not. “Whether they get mad at you or not, stick to your duties,” he said.  

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