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NEAL DECLINES WITH E3.6BN DAM BREAKDOWN DOCUMENTS

07/05/2024 08:03:00 Nonduduzo Kunene

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LOBAMBA – The Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, has declined to furnish senators with some documents on the funds committed for the Mkhondvo Ngwavuma Water Augmentation Project and Mpakeni Dam.

The documents in question contain the breakdown of the E3.6 billion funds committed to the Mkhondvo Ngwavuma Water Augmentation Project (MNWAP) and Mpakeni Dam. The minister declined because the tendering process for the project could be jeopardised should the senators accidentally leak the documents to the different stakeholders they represent or have ties with. This transpired yesterday at the Senate Chamber in Parliament, when members of the Finance Senate Portfolio Committee went through the clause-by-clause session of the E2 084 290 000 African Development Bank (AfDB) Phase 1B Loan Bill No.3 of 2024.

Sessions

The minister’s refusal came after the Chairperson of the Finance Senate Portfolio Committee, Tony Sibandze, went through the sessions that the senators had gone through about the loan Bill. The chairperson told the portfolio committee members that the Bill had been through its first reading, and they were sensitised about it during a workshop that was held at the Senate Chamber a week ago.

He also stated that the Bill had been taken through the stakeholder submissions stage, where stakeholders including Prince Mlotjwa, Business Eswatini (BE), the University of Eswatini (UNESWA), the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, as well as the Construction Industry Council (CIC), made contributions on the Bill. Sibandze reminded the senators that they had requested five items during the different stages the loan Bill went through. These included the breakdown of the E3.6 billion funds that have been committed and those that would be committed to the project.

This includes the current E2 billion loan Bill for Phase II of the project, as well as the previous E1.6 billion that was passed in 2022, which is Phase I of the project. The other requests by the senators were timely updates on the project, involvement of the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, loan to maturity documents, as well as the feasibility study.

Sibandze told the senators that from their previous engagements with the Ministry of Finance, they were able to make progress on some of the requests they had made, but they seemed to have hit a brick wall as far as getting the breakdown of the funds committed for the project was concerned. “I don’t get the reason why they refused to give us the breakdown, but I picked that there was discomfort in terms of the information contained in the breakdown,” he said when telling the senators about the challenges he had encountered.

Information

He went on to state that when he tried to push for the documents, he was told that any information he needed was in the 260-page highly technical feasibility study. The chairperson, as passionate as he was, said he tried to go through the feasibility study to be able to simplify it and present it to the senators, but he failed. However, some senators said they failed to understand why the minister refused with the breakdown. They mentioned that it was not the first time that they had asked for such documents.

Some of the senators, who served in previous terms, said they had valid reasons as to why they asked for the breakdown of the E3.6 billion committed for the project in the Shiselweni Region. At the time, the Minister of Finance, Rijkenberg, had not joined the session. Senator Sigombeni Dlamini reminded the other senators how these documents could save emaSwati from repaying a loan that was never entirely used for the project it was meant for.

He recalled that during the 11th Parliament, they uncovered rot in the Golf Course Interchange Project breakdown, where they uncovered that some of the funds were budgeted for other things that were hidden within that loan. He wondered if there were no other things that were hidden in the documents that the minister was refusing to share with them.

“We don’t understand why the ministry is failing to give us the breakdown because we are talking from experience that we saw something in the Manzini Interchange. We fear that we will find ourselves agreeing to a loan that has things that were not for the project. We are talking about serious money here. What is the reason for not availing the breakdown?” he wondered. Senator Siphelele Mkhonta said it was not like they wanted to get to every cent and item but just wanted an overview of the commitments.

Breakdown

He supported Senator Sigombeni and called on the minister to explain why he was refusing with the breakdown as they could take a decision from there. “We plead not to get a Bill of margins; we are more on the overview,” he said. Deputy Senate President Ndumiso Mdluli advised that they should wait for the minister to join them to explain his position. “It would be okay to get the minister’s explanation. We wanted the breakdown so that we could ask relevant questions in terms of where the money would be channelled to,” he said.

The Senate President, Lindiwe Dlamini, said the minister might have a valid reason why he could not share these documents. Time was not wasted when the minister entered the Senate chamber. Rijkenberg was prepared to give responses and he ended up receiving the backing of some senators.
The minister told the senators that the E3.6 billion consisted of E2.04 billion for Phase II, which is the loan Bill that was in discussion. At least E922 million was intended for the construction of holding dams, while around E610 million was for farm development and irrigation systems.

The minister also said the Eswatini Water Agricultural Development Enterprise (EWADE) advised against sharing the documents. “The problem we have is that now the team at EWADE - the technical evaluation team- does have the breakdown they have the numbers, but there is a problem with sharing them at this stage because it could be handed out to the people who want to tender for this work. If we share the information that we are expecting so much for concrete, it would compromise the tender process,” said the minister.

The minister explained that the tendering process would be jeopardised in a manner that everyone would know exactly what the government was expecting to pay for every single item that would be procured because the document contains high-level numbers in terms of what sort of procurement and how much government would pay for each item. For that reason, Rijkenberg said the moment they made it available it could compromise the tender process.

“May I plead with the senators that the advantage we have is that EWADE has always delivered on the price. Most of their projects deliver at 9/10 and it is among the best entities and they have integrity. “Do not take it as disrespect, but to save the project and ensure the tender process is not compromised, the feasibility study has everything, but does not go to the granular of every item,” he said.

Costing

The chairperson assured that the senators were in support of the project but they did not want all the finer details of the costing. He said they wanted supporting documents of where the money would be spent, to know where the money was going and be able to answer when they were asked about the loan application they approved. “We just wanted information like how much would be spent for resettlement, environment maintenance; not breaking down the construction in terms of material to be used. We would not want documents that may jeopardise the project, we are law enforcers for that matter,” he said. He assured the minister that they trusted EWADE.

The Senate president appreciated the minister’s explanation. “It is tricky because as we are here, we also represent certain people from different fields, so that information may be leaked to someone who will participate in the tendering process,” she said. The Senate president said the minister still needed to give them the breakdown, perhaps away from the media and without sharing documents with them, but simply do a presentation so that they might understand the responsibility areas of the funds without sharing the documents.