Africa-Press – Eswatini. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation showed up empty-handed, unprepared and unbothered before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Parliament.
This unfolded yesterday when the ministry appeared before the PAC to answer financial queries that were flagged by Auditor General (AG), Timothy Matsebula, in his audit report and the public accounts committee’s recommendations on the financial audit report on government accounts for the financial year ended March 31, 2021. Usually, some government ministries show up with over 30 officials from their ministries and are commonly led by the principal secretaries (PS)/controlling officers and the under secretaries.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, which has embassies in over 20 countries and heads of department, only showed up with seven officials, whom among them were on an acting basis, while the PS, Newman Ntshangase, was the only substantive officer. During the session, the PAC chairperson told the ministry about the order of the day, which included going through the PAC 2021 recommendations as well as the two audit reports for the financial years ended 2022 and 2023. Usually, PAC members in every session would have a mountain of reports in front of them, but yesterday it was different as the MPs did not have much to chew with them. The PAC chairperson gave the controlling officer time to deliver his remarks before they could go into the business of the day.
Apologies
It was then that Ntshangase started his remarks with apologies for not doing their work for over a year. “I will start by apologising for things we did not do well as a ministry. We were told that we were supposed to be submitting responses in advance to the committee, so that today’s activity could be smooth. “We encountered challenges. The first challenge is that there was miscommunication between our office and the AG’s office. “We only got the report the day before yesterday (Tuesday). We apologise for that,” he said. The controlling officer asked the PAC to give them a month to go and prepare the responses that were needed by the PAC, because they had nothing they could present yesterday sincethey got the reports very late. Noteworthy, the PAC schedule was issued on May 8, 2023.
He added that it would be improper for them to sit and continue with the session, since the PAC did not have time to go through the mix-up and duplicated responses that they had brought with them yesterday. “We know we were given a schedule and we were aware of the time, but we are asking for another date. “We prepared a few responses, but we are not sure if the responses would be to your satisfaction as we feel like we can do better. “With your permission, we will be ready in the first week of July,” he said.
Shocking
After the excuses that seemed to have infuriated the MPs, the PAC Chairperson, who is Mhlangatane Member of Parliament (MP), Madala Mhlanga asked the other MPs who are part of the committee, to respond to the shocking statement and request that was made by the PS, who was accompanied by six officials who were all in acting positions. “In as much as I would love to respond to you, I will just leave it to the committee to do so,” he said. Before he could gives the MPs a chance to respond to the PS’ request, he asked him (PS) if they had responses to the PAC recommendations for the 2021 report. This report was issued in December 2022. He also asked the AG to confirm if there was any honesty in the statement that was made by the PS that he did not receive any of the reports in question.
Mhlanga said these reports were the PAC recommendations that were adopted and circulated in December 2022, The Financial Audit Report on the Consolidated Government Accounts of the Kingdom of Eswatini for the financial year ended March 31, 2022, which was tabled in Parliament in February when the minister of Finance was tabling the 2023/2024 budget speech, was also available on the government website and was widely circulated. He said the last report was the Financial Audit Report on the Consolidated Government Accounts of the Kingdom of Eswatini for the financial year ended March 31, 2023, which was tabled in Parliament in February this year and was also shared publicly. Mhlanga asked how it happened that a government ministry could not get hold of all three reports of which some were made public two years ago.
Shared
The auditor general told the PAC that all three reports that are shared through a management letter were sent a long time ago and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received it. He also said reports are also included or seconded by a reference sheet, which he said he prepared himself. Matsebula said to prove that the ministry received the report, they responded to the reference sheet. The AG told the PAC that the ministry sent responses, however, they were a duplication of what was in the report that he tabled in Parliament. He added that it did not make complete sense that the PS would sit there with his handful number of officials and say they never received a report that was tabled in Parliament in February.
“This report was tabled in Parliament and that is known by every government official that deals with the PAC. It is also available online on the government website,” he said. Matsebula said he was contacted by the PS on Wednesday and claimed they just received the report. He said he was startled by the PS’s phone call, because he had met the under secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation two weeks ago and did not utter a word about them not receiving any of the reports. This was after the PAC schedule was also issued.
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