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LOSSES COMMITTEE TO PROBE OVER 10 PUBLIC PROPERTY CASES

23/11/2020 02:14:00 BY NTOMBI MHLONGO

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MBABANE - The Lindifa Mamba-led Losses Committee is expected to investigate over 10 cases related to loss of public property.

This is reflected in the Public Accounts Committee’s Recommendations on the Auditor General’s Financial and Compliance Audit Report on Government Accounts for the financial year ended March 31, 2019.

The report, which was tabled in the House of Assembly last week, reflects that there are about 17 cases which the Losses Committee will be expected to issue verdicts on.

About 10 of them have been referred to the Losses Committee in the current report while the others are pending from the previous year.

Purpose

The Losses Committee is a body which is tasked with the purpose of investigating the loss of public property.

It was appointed by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg in January this year and it is chaired by attorney Lindifa Mamba.

The 10-member committee had not been in office for almost over a year and it was one of the recommendations made by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the minister appoints it as soon as possible so that government funds could be recovered. One of the cases referred to the Losses Committee is a finding under the Treasury and Stores Department by the auditor general (AG), who noted that a consolidated statement of outstanding revenue, as at March 31, 2019, showed irrecoverable debts of E10 900 813.19.

It was stated in the PAC’s report that the debts were from the financial year ended March 31, 2016 and had been outstanding for a period of over four years without being recovered by the ministries and departments.

“The controlling officer submitted that the balance dates back to more than 10 years and the records are untraceable since the preservation of records is only five years old. As a result, the ministry is considering reporting these debts to the Losses Committee,” it was stated in the report.

Development

Another interesting case included in the AG’s report that the Eswatini Development and Savings Bank had outstanding loans amounting to E476 027.31 as at March 2017, which were repayable over a period of 25 years, but the repayments had not been done.

The PAC reported that the controlling officer submitted that the ministry met with the bank where issues of loans given to it were discussed.

“While the bank acknowledged all the other loans presented by the ministry, they said they had no information relating to this particular loan as it is old, citing change of personnel over the years and that some documents were burnt years ago when the building caught fire,” reads part of the PAC report.

Also on the list is the case of 20 executive desks, amounting to E219 600, which the AG said were purchased from PSD Investments, but that during a physical verification, it was discovered that only four desks were delivered to the Manzini Library instead of 20. The AG said it was further noted that the delivery note was signed to acknowledge delivery, yet the furniture was partly delivered resulting in furniture amounting to E95 680 missing and untraceable.

“The controlling officer stated that the matter is still under investigation by the relevant government agencies being the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Royal Eswatini Police Fraud and Commercial Crimes Unit,” the report stated.

It was also mentioned that the ACC informed the ministry that investigations were ongoing but advised the ministry to also conduct its own internal investigations.

Documents

“The police on the other hand, informed the ministry that they have failed to trace the batch and original documents from the Treasury Department. In the absence of these documents, the Directorate of Public Prosecutions said it could not prosecute the cases.

“The investigation remains open. The ministry has encountered challenges trying to conduct internal investigations as most of the officers who were around when the incident occurred are no longer employed by the ministry,” it was highlighted in the report.Meanwhile, the report also listed cases which had already been reported to the Losses Committee.

The PAC urged the controlling officers to quarterly update it on the cases pending before the Losses Committee. One of the cases is that the AG, under the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, reported that three folding chairs, two tablets and a laptop worth E54 182.60, could not be located during the audit.

The PAC report states that the controlling officer submitted that the laptop had been recovered and so was one of the tablets.

According to the findings of the PAC, the controlling officer said the items had been taken by one officer who had undertaken a trip outside the country during the audit.

However, the PAC said the other items had still not been recovered and that the controlling officer had since reported the matter to the Losses Committee.

The appointment of the Losses Committee was made through Legal Gazette No.4 of 2020 and according to the gazette, it was deemed to have come into force on December 2, 2019 and it is expected to carry out its functions for a period of three years.

The committee performs its functions assigned to it under Part VIII of the Public Finance Management Act of 2017.

Section 110 of the Act on personal responsibility for losses states that a public office holder, public officer or other person with responsibility for government resources shall be held personally responsible for any loss sustained by government due to acts of fraud or negligence on the part of that officer. The Act states that the determination of a loss under the Section shall be made by the principal secretary of the ministry responsible for Finance, who may consider the advice of the Losses Committee.

Conviction

It further states that a corporation or any other legal entity shall, on conviction, be liable for contraventions of this section when committed by its organs or representatives in its name and in the collective interest of the entity if that entity has responsibility for government resources and causes loss sustained by the government due to acts of fraud or negligence on the part of the entity or acts of fraud or negligence on the part of any other entity or person, if it is found that the entity contributed to the loss by the action, negligence or omission of the entity.

The PAC on the other hand is established in terms of Section 209 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini.

In executing its mandate, it conducts public hearings using its right to investigate or review all past, current and committed expenditures of government and organisations receiving funds from government.

Leading the committee is Matsanjeni North MP, Phila Buthelezi, while the Deputy is Gege MP, Musa Kunene.