KNOWLEDGE CITED IN SCHOOL’S UNCLEAR E282K DEBTS PAYMENT

LOBAMBA – Popular ‘investigator’ in the Ministry of Education and Training Knowledge Ngwenya has been implicated in the uncertainty over payment of Ekwezi High School debts amounting to E282 519.

This amount is in respect of outstanding debts which were incurred by the school in calendar year 2017, allegedly through his instruction. This was revealed during the Public Schools Audit, where Ekwezi High School appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday. Ngwenya, whose sting operation left many teachers jobless, is expected to appear before the PAC to answer on allegations that he instructed the school to settle the ‘unknown’ debts. According to Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula’s report, it was uncertain if the process of authenticating the debts was carried out correctly as there was no evidence found that would assist the office to confirm if the debts were authentic. Matsebula further noted that the school paid suppliers who had no details of supplies, which constituted fictitious payments.

“The school could end up making double payments and fictitious payments, which are tantamount to fraud,” said the AG. Muzi Dlamini, the school’s current Head teacher, informed the PAC that the uncertainty was caused by the fact that there were no supporting documents. Instead, he said the school was given a list of the debts and an order to repay without an invoice or delivery note. Dlamini mentioned that there were questions on whether the debts existed or not. He said Ngwenya was at that time leading the investigation which was launched in the school. He allegedly came with the report of the debts to be paid. The head teacher stated that he (Ngwenya) issued an order for the debts to be paid off.

“Unfortunately, there was no document he produced but the minutes of the meeting that was convened on the day were recorded,” Dlamini said. The head teacher mentioned that it was during a meeting attended by the school committee when Ngwenya purportedly handed over the list of the debts to be paid. Dlamini highlighted that Ngwenya was even present on the second day of payment of some of the debts, to review and follow up on the process of repaying them. PAC Chairperson Phila Buthelezi asked if the school had a way of verifying the authenticity of the debts or they only relied on Ngwenya’s word. He asked how they could trust Ngwenya without any written documents to qualify the debts.

Acknowledged

The head teacher acknowledged that nothing written was provided and that there was no way they verified the debts. He said the school only paid as per Ngwenya’s instruction. The AG said Ngwenya was required to appear before the committee to answer.

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