Home | News | REVEALED: INTERNAL CONFLICT IN DPM’S OFFICE TEAM

REVEALED: INTERNAL CONFLICT IN DPM’S OFFICE TEAM

28/04/2022 08:38:00 Khulile Thwala

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MBABANE – The tension within the Deputy Prime Minister’s (DPM) Office was laid bare yesterday after the executive admitted there was internal conflict.

This was during the DPM’s Office appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday; where the Under Secretary (US), Hlobisile Dlamini, who is also the PAC chair in the office, stated that it was becoming more and more difficult to constitute a meeting to respond to the recommendations of the PAC. In response to her statement, the PAC Chairperson, Gege Member of Parliament (MP) Musa Kunene, said he would chuck the DPMO team out if they continued to bring such responses. Dlamini, responding to the chairperson, said the reason behind her response was because the team was not gelling well and, therefore, could not cohesively work on the PAC recommendations. “We got the PAC recommendations on time, which was around October, and the meeting was convened, but heads of department did not meet or gel well as a team,” she said. Kunene said the responses previously given by the DPM’s Office team demonstrated that they were not a team but a group of officials who had come before the PAC.

Observe

Corroborating Dlamini’s statement was the Principal Secretary (PS) in the DPM’s Office, Makhosini Mndawe, who said he was glad that the PAC was able to observe the indifferences within the ministry. He said they had tried to keep their challenges within the office, but it was becoming more evident that there were disagreements within the office. “There is no trust between officers in the ministry, the trust has eroded. We know the problems and have placed measures to try and repair the relationship,” he said. The PAC chairperson, in response to this, asked the team to go back and re-work on the PAC recommendations once they had sorted their in-house issues, stating that the committee would grant them a timeframe to work on the recommendations and return to give an update.

However, Mndawe insisted that the PAC gets to the bottom of the matter, stating that if the matter was left unresolved, they would return with the same issues. “I would appreciate if the committee would try to get to the bottom of this issue now, because as you can see there are problems within this ministry, which are making it hard for the team to be productive. My fear is that if we leave here without solving the issue, we will return with the same problems and the same responses, without anything changing,” said Mndawe. The PAC chairperson, however, was adamant that the PS or controlling officer was more than capable of ensuring that the team was in sync without the assistance of the PAC. Despite what the PAC chairperson had stated, the controlling officer continued with his request for the matter to be attended to, so much that he eventually requested for a caucus with the committee.

The submissions made by the US and PS on the DPM team’s relationship emanated from the PAC’s query on the audit of uniform and protective clothing which amounted to E339 625.27. The anomalies included the uniform and protective clothing not being recorded in Inwards Book and Goods Received Notes, unaccounted for uniform and protective clothing worth E105 958.17, missing uniform and protective clothing worth E72 031.17 and missing supporting documents of uniform worth E33 927. In its recommendations, the PAC had said the controlling officer was urged to quarterly update the committee on the investigations, failing which he would be charged with contempt of Parliament.

Appreciate

The PAC chairperson said he appreciated the office’s attempt to respond to the committee although it was evident that there were internal issues which were making it impossible for the sitting to proceed. “Angfuni nikhombane phambikwetfu, go and sort your issues out and return ready to proceed with the sitting with thought after and appropriate responses,” said Kunene. Meanwhile, yesterday the PS in the DPM’s Office, Mndawe, disclosed that the office was yet to meet with its stakeholders with regard to developing guidelines for the disbursement of disability grants. This is despite the PAC having recommended that the office developed these guidelines last year. “COVID-19 has been a huge hindrance to the development of these guidelines, because we had to use Zoom for meetings and we could not do so because some of our stakeholders are living with disabilities and it was not practical to include them in the meetings as they would not be able to participate,” he said.

The controlling officer further said they had met with the United Nations (UN) in drafting the guidelines and promised to continue with completing them. Lubombo Region MP, Lorraine Nxumalo, decried the principal secretary’s response, stating that it had been three years without these guidelines and it was surprising that the ministry was comfortable with that. “I am worried that the controlling officer is citing COVID-19 as a reason behind the non-completion of the guidelines, yet there have been many regulations which have been eased to ensure that people are able to physically meet. We want another solid answer,” he said. The MP further said in the PAC’s recommendation, the PS had been given 30 days to return with a solution but had not done so, thus flouting Parliament rules, which warranted a penalty.

Mtfongwaneni MP Roy Fanourakis said the DPM’s Office was not sensitive to the issue at hand and was not making an effort to ensure that the money was given to people living with disabilities. “What is the progress so far with the guidelines? Can the PS give us a definite percentage?” asked Mangcongco MP Oneboy Zikalala. Vice Chairperson of the PAC Madlangempisi MP Sibusiso ‘Scorpion’ Nxumalo reminded the PS that the penalty fee had gone up from E400 to E4 000. In his response to the debate, the controlling officer said it was not fair to criticise the COVID-19 excuse as, according to him, every ministry had at some point had challenges with productivity due to the pandemic. “Going forward we will be able to meet as we have adapted to COVID-19,” he said.

Mndawe said there were approximately 167 000 people living with disabilities registered, but it was challenging to incorporate all of them into the grants due to budget limitations. He further said the office was in no way comfortable with not having guidelines for the disbursement of the grants. Manzini Region MP questioned the PS on how many disability grant beneficiaries had done so unduly, stating that during the last PAC sitting with the office there was mention that a person was benefitting for having tuberculosis. Mangcongco MP asked how often the updating of data on the beneficiaries was done, while the Accountant General, Manqoba Dlamini asked why the budget was being blamed because the elderly were added onto the list of grantees everyday, but same was not done for those with a disability.

Figure

In response, the PS said he did not have the exact figure of those who wrongly benefitted, he said they had to get back to the PAC after proper analysis. However, after a few minutes an official, from the ministry forwarded the number 431 as being the number of people who have benefitted from the grant unduly. “The exercise, on finding wrong beneficiaries was ongoing. Just recently, I received a call from a concerned citizen informing me that there was a family who was benefitting from the elderly grant, yet the elder was now deceased and we were able to get to the bottom of that issue and now we were recovering the money.” Mntfongwaneni MP, Fanourakis, questioned why the office relied on people for such information and said the office should simply work with the Ministry of Home Affairs and link death certificates to the grant system to avoid unduly beneficiaries.

The PS said they were currently using this system but it was inefficient. He said that there were people who chose not to update the details of their relatives’ deaths intentionally, so as to benefit from receiving their grants. “The reason why people with disabilities cannot be added to receive grants automatically was because of budget constraints. Every year we request for the budget to be increased, in order for us to do this, but this does not happen,” said Mndawe. He further said they were using the assistance of bucopho to verify whether these elderly were alive or deceased and whether indeed the person benefitting from the disability grant has disability. The vice chairperson of the PAC further recommended that the committee give the controlling officer 30 days to submit on the issue of beneficiaries.

“Litiko litsemba kakhulu bantfu. Why are we using bucopho instead of healthcare workers to find out if a person has disability, can we not get a doctor’s report? Why are we also not computerising some of our systems, I am worried that the ministry is not moving forward,” he said. The issue of the grants disability guidelines was brought up again, with the PAC chairperson stating that the drafts should be pushed and followed up. “The attempt the ministry is making is not helping, there should be a sense of urgency, as many days have passed,” said Kunene. The controlling officer said they had submitted the drafts to the Attorney General’s (AG) Office and have had a meeting with the AG. The legal advisor in the DPM’s Office also said the process was at a complete stage.