Home | News | CJ’S CARS IN FIVE ACCIDENTS WORTH E250 000

CJ’S CARS IN FIVE ACCIDENTS WORTH E250 000

13/09/2020 07:01:00 BY WELCOME DLAMINI

Font size:

welcome@times.co.sz

MBABANE – If there is ever a record for the most accidents suffered by vehicles belonging to a head of an arm of government, then those of the CJ should be strong contenders.

Within a space of a year, vehicles allocated to Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala were involved in five accidents.

One of these vehicles was involved in four of the five accidents and this is the black BMW 750i which he inherited from his predecessor, the late Lesotho national Michael Ramodibedi.

Maphalala is chauffeured in this vehicle most of the time and it was one he used the most before he was given three more luxury cars to bring his fleet, excluding escorts, to four.

report

The accidents occurred between 2017 and 2018.

According to Auditor General Timothy Matsebula’s report for the financial year ended March 31, 2019, the BMW was first taken for repairs on October 26, 2017 due to an ‘accident’ and it needed ‘glass repairs’ that came at a cost of E18 027.

Three of the other ‘accidents’ occurred in 2018: on January 25 it was taken for repairs that cost E741; on April 11 it was again taken for repairs that cost E2 394; and on July 25 it was taken in for another repair job that also cost E741.

There is then the CJ’s Mercedes Benz ML model, which also had an ‘accident’ and, on June 28, 2017, was taken in for repairs that cost E24 000.

The third vehicle is one of his escort vehicles - a Chevrolet Trailblazer - which now lies idle at the High Court parking lot where cars belonging to High Court judges park during working hours.

The escort is reported to have been involved in an accident and suffered damages amounting to E207 546.18.

Matsebula found out about the damage to the vehicles when he conducted an audit of the process of recovery of costs incurred in repairing accident damaged government vehicles under the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

He said the ministry’s Principal Secretary, Lorraine Hlophe, reported that some of the queried accident damaged vehicles ‘were not under her ministry but were under the judiciary’.

“I sought to ascertain if the accidents had been investigated and whether the costs that were incurred in repairing accident damaged vehicles due to negligence had been recovered from concerned officers or parties.

“Also, to establish whether or not irrecoverable losses had been reported to the principal secretary, Ministry of Finance for deliberations by the Losses Committee,” the auditor general said.

He said the damaged vehicles and the costs of repairing them were as reported by the Central Transport Administration.

response

Matsebula said for the CJ’s Mercedes Benz and the BMW, he received ‘no response from the ministry’ when he sought responses.“I expressed my concern to the controlling officer about unrecovered costs of repairing accident damaged vehicles from the concerned officers or parties, which continues to be a heavy financial burden to government and taxpayers.

Those responsible are often not brought to account for the damaged vehicles and aggravating the situation is that these losses are not reported to the Losses Committee, so that a decision is taken to recover the public funds or write them off, if necessary,” said the AG.

He said it should be noted that the delays in investigating these losses put government at risk of not recovering the costs, should those who were negligent exit the public service.

“In addition to that, the drivers are put at a disadvantage of having to prolong repayments and some might be closer to retirement, thus monthly deductions might be higher,” he said.

Furthermore, he said there was no confirmation whether third parties, whom traffic officers found to have caused the accidents, were reported to the attorney general so that they may compensate government the costs of the damages.

In so doing, he said, Section 6 (11) of the Financial Management and Accounting Procedures Manual on Loss or Damage of Stores Items/Equipment was violated. The section states that “any damage to or loss of stores or equipment through fraud, theft, misuse or negligence must be brought to account as soon as possible and in accordance with Chapter 15 of the Stores Regulations.”

Matsebula said in a response dated May 26, 2020, the PS Hlophe and the controlling officer of the Judiciary, who is the Supreme Court Registrar, both denied knowledge of 13 damaged vehicles and their related costs.

These 13 cars that were denied by the two controlling officers included the CJ’s BMW.

“These vehicles are neither being acknowledged by the controlling officer of the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs nor the controlling officer of the Judiciary. I am concerned that these vehicles were not controlled by any controlling officer, as both controlling officers are failing to account for these vehicles. Thus the matter remains reportable,” the AG said.

The Judiciary controlling officer only accounted for the CJ’s Mercedes Benz and the escort Trailblazer.

For the Trailblazer, her comment was that the ‘officer involved in an accident passed away’.

The AG also discovered another vehicle – an Isuzu van registered GSD 118 JU – belonging to the CJ’s office that had also been in an ‘accident’ and fixing it cost E3 414.

The Judiciary controlling officer told Matsebula that ‘the vehicle had a Diff issue’.

Matsebula said he informed both controlling officers that they should investigate why vehicles registered as ‘JU’ were not accounted for under the proper ministries and expected controlling officers.

investigation

“I alerted the controlling officer of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and the General Transport Manager that some ministries are denying the costs of some of the vehicles appearing in their accident reports.

“Hence, there is need to investigate and identify officers responsible and accountable for controlling the denied vehicles and their related accident costs,” he said.

The AG said a follow-up would also be made to identify recurrence of these audit issues in subsequent compliance audit inspections.

The CJ, by law, is supposed to have two official vehicles, excluding escort vehicles, but mystery surrounds why the State has given him four luxurious ones.

These vehicles are a Toyota Land Cruiser VXR V8 Sports Utility Vehicle, a Mercedes Benz S-Class 400d model, the Mercedes Benz ML model and the BMW 750i.

While he inherited the latter two vehicles from his predecessor, the late Michael Ramodibedi, the other two were bought specifically for him since he assumed office in November 2015.

The number of vehicles for the CJ now dwarf what Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini is allocated.

The PM has two official vehicles in which he is chauffeured and also has two escort vehicles wherever he travels in the country.

reasons

In February this year, two Cabinet ministers and two senior government officials who should know about the reasons for giving four vehicles to the CJ, claimed to either know nothing about the cars or simply did not want to talk about them.

Legal Notice No. 87 of 2016 (prescription of salaries and allowances for judicial officers) states that the minister responsible for transport, in this case the Minister of Public Works and Transport, shall, on the approval of the Minister of Finance, classify vehicles to be used by a judicial officer.

The CJ, as per the Notice, is entitled to ‘two government cars’.

Other judges receive a commuted car allowance that is equivalent to that of the Secretary to Cabinet.

Neal Rijkenberg, the Minister of Finance, said he was not aware of the vehicles and the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Pholile Shakantu, also said she was not aware that the CJ had so many (four) vehicles for his official use.