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E326 220 SOS PRIMARY TEACHERS’ INCENTIVES SHOCK PAC

10/11/2021 08:44:00 BY DELISA THWALA

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LOBAMBA – The Public Account Committee (PAC) discovered that Herman Gmeiner (SOS) Primary School spent cash amounting to E326 220 incetivising teachers.

This is said to have happened in the financial year 2018. There was no explanation of what was being paid for. According to the Auditor General’s (AG) report, the payments done were fraudulent, and this was a violation of the schools accounting regulations Section 13.0, which states that the head teacher must record all expenditure incurred by the school and ensure there was a supporting voucher for each item of expense. When probed to answer what the money was spent on, the Head teacher, Linda Thwala, said some of the money was paid to teachers at the school as incentives. Thwala said the money was sourced from the school’s trips funds that had been left unused.

Shock

Much to the shock of the PAC, Thwala said the teachers were given incentives of E1 000 each as a way of motivating them for their work. He further mentioned that the remaining money that was paid in bulk was still in the bank. “The reason teachers were given this money was because of their hard work during the school trips,” said Thwala. PAC Chairperson, who is also Gege Member of Parliament, (MP) Musa Kunene, asked Thwala what hard work had been done by the teachers for them to receive money at the expense of parents. Kunene further enquired if parents were told about the teachers’ incentives. “What did the teachers do to deserve such money and were the parents told that their hard earned money will be given to teachers who already earned a salary?” asked Kunene.

MP Oneboy Zikalala echoed Kunene’s sentiments and said the school seemed to have money and was not scared to spend it. Meanwhile, Ministry of Education and Training Principal Secretary (PS) Bhekithemba Gama, said there was no regulation in the ministry which stated that teachers were entitled to incentives. He said it was not mandatory and they did not know about it. “I do not know why the school is not adhering to the ministry’s regulations,” said Gama when responding regarding to the SOS matter.

Another matter reported in the AG’s report was that the school did not have a minute book, instead, they had the minutes typed out but were not detailed. It was mentioned that the School Committee did not meet often, except for approval of purchases only. The AG further noted that there were no minutes for annual general meetings with parents, for presentation of financial statements and budget for the next year. This was despite that the Constitution of the School Committees, Article 7; Section 7.3.4 stipulates that the secretary shall record minutes for all committee and parents’ meetings. Without the minutes, the school does not have a record of resolutions made by the committee members and parents.

In response, Thwala concurred that there was no minute book. He stated that minutes were written on an exam pad, and later on typed. He denied that the minutes were written specifically for the audit. He concurred that the School Committee did not meet often, but denied that the Secretary and Chairperson often met to sign cheques only. Another query by the PAC was that of irrelevant attachments. The AG reported that there were payments attached to payment vouchers as supporting documents that were for previous years.

The attachments amounted to E4 835 and this was said to be a violation of the schools accounting regulations, Section 12.0, which states that the head of school must take action to ensure that resources collected from parents for educational purposes as a condition of attendance are expended and used efficiently solely for that purpose. In response, Thwala acknowledged the anomaly, stating that this happened because some companies were paid towards the end of the year, but would only post invoices in the next year.

Attachments

His response did not however, sit well with the PAC chairperson, who asked why the head teacher used wrong attachments. He further implored the school’s Chairperson Motshane MP, Robert Magongo, to respond and shed light on the matter, to which Magongo said he did not know anything. “I do not know anything about this but all payment attachments that I know of and signed were correct and not of previous years,” said Magongo. Meanwhile, the PAC Chairperson put the newly-appointed PS in the Ministry of Education and Training Principal Secretary (Gama) on the spot.

MP Kunene called out Gama for failing to avail himself for the sitting and said he should stop acting like he was doing the PAC a favour by gracing them with his presence.Worth noting is that since his appointment, Gama had only been to the PAC sittings once. “Please kindly talk to the PS, we are here to work and not lazing around. There is a lot that needs him here but he has not been present. Can I say that this is not a joke, we are here to work and no one is doing anyone a favour,” lamented Kunene.

Wrong

He went on to state that the ministry was actually undermining their work as a committee. “This is our job, we give it our all and we cannot have people undermine us like this. It is wrong, totally wrong. Can the PS be here to do his job,” said Kunene. His sentiments were echoed by Lobamba MP Allen Stewart, who said it was disheartening to see people slack in their duties when they did their utmost best to be always available for work. Stewart said they too had other commitments but work came first.

Meanwhile, the PAC called Motshane MP Magongo to order for using underhand tactics in an attempt to discredit the audit report and their work. Magongo had complained that the committee members did not form a quorum, meaning they could not continue with the sitting. MP Magongo is the Chairperson of Herman Gmeiner Primary School Committee. This was refuted by the PAC chairperson, who insisted that they formed a quorum and should continue with the sitting.
MP Magongo had further alleged that he had been receiving threats from PAC Deputy Chairperson, MP Sibusiso ‘Scorpion’ Nxumalo and requested that in order for justice to prevail, Nxumalo should excuse them.

“Can the vice chairperson please excuse us because if he stays, I do not think there will be justice to what we are about to do here. He threatened me and said I am needed and he wanted to deal with me,” said Magongo. Kunene indicated that the vice chairperson was within his right to call Magongo as the committee also subpoenaed him to appear before it. Committee Member MP Stewart called Magongo to order for the first time and stated that he should not be allowed to dictate terms to them.

Threaten

When responding to this, PAC Vice Chairperson, MP Nxumalo, said he did not threaten Magongo but was merely doing his housekeeping duties. He said he was well within his right to call and tell Magongo to avail himself before the PAC. “I only requested him to appear before the committee, not as an MP but as chairman of SOS. It is not good to have people of public office not being held accountable. I actually warned him that if he does not come, I will put him in jail,” said Nxumalo. Another Committee Member, MP Oneboy Zikalala, asked Magongo to respect them and refrain from telling them how to do their work. “Let us not entertain what is not on record, we are here to deal with audit queries and he is here as the school committee chairperson,” he said.

However, Magongo directed MP Stewart to withdraw his statement that he deliberately refused to appear before the committee. He indicated that he only came to the hearing out of respect of the chairperson. He further mentioned that he was not happy that the chairperson ran to the speaker to sign the subpoena instead of signing it himself as the committee chairperson. “Ungibalekele lani as the chairperson of the committee?” he asked. Kunene then directed Magongo to withdraw his statement as it indicated that they were wasting time as he was now casting doubt on the report as a whole.

He declined to comment further but revealed that he had evidence to support his claims and if they insisted that he speaks, he would gladly do so. After being requested on numerous occasions, he revealed that for the sake of progress, he would withdraw his statement. MP Stewart did not take kindly to this and revealed that what Magongo was doing was disrespectful to their work. “He should not be allowed to use underhand tactics to discredit the work we are doing here. “He should be called to order and not allowed to do this as it is unfair,” he said. He added that if Magongo had issues with the audit team, he should have addressed them with the ministry instead of making accusations that were not supported by facts. Magongo did not stay for the whole sitting as he indicated that he was not well and also had some matters he urgently needed to address.