Africa-Press – Eswatini. Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula has revealed that with his team of auditors, they have been offered bribes on the side before, but have consistently declined them.
He said his office stood by the principle of never bending to corrupt means to dissuade them from doing their job, which was to dig up and expose irregularities in financial transactions involving government funds.
It was well-documented that the office of the AG had also faced death threats before, which it could be argued that such comes with the territory, similarly, bribe offers.
“They have definitely tried (bribes) in the past but we’ve been resolute in rejecting such offers. We just do not entertain this kind of corruption,” stressed Matsebula.
Emphasis
He said there was a strong emphasis on adhering to the value of integrity among his team members.
Matsebula was a guest in a current affairs show on EBIS radio, hosted by Bhekizwe Maveni Gwebu previously.
Responding to a question that in the not-so-distant past, investigators assigned by the office had their work equipment confiscated, he pointed out that people who handled money unscrupulously naturally loathed being audited, and the reason was that they did not want to be exposed to the public.
Therefore, such elements were always looking for ways to hinder the work of the office, even going to the extent of physically taking away investigators’ working tools.
“It was just an unfortunate instance that this happened. But overall, we are able to secure cooperation from whom we are assigned to work on.
The Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) have always assisted us where need be, for instance in situations where it appears that there is a threat in the line of duty,” he explained.
The AG was also confronted with the question on why it seemed his office was ineffective in identifying and plugging the corruption that had been happening within the ministry of health.
Unearthed
The ministry, since last year, came under-fire for the shortage of medication countrywide, and as investigations had been on-going, allegations of corruption involving service providers had been unearthed.
To this, Matsebula responded that his office carried out their mandate in the ministry, but one should understand that corruption was a deep phenomenon that made it harder to detect or point out, especially where it is well- organised.
It could take even years to positively identify it.
“We followed the ministry of health issues, which in the last years, came to a head as it became clear that medication was not reaching health centres.
This is because the elements involved in corruption seemed to double their efforts with every year and made it harder for government to function in the health sector.
I recall that in 2010 – 2015 medication was available in hospitals,” he observed.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the kingdom, the AG said it seemed the corruption elements shifted into high gear too, as it was evidenced by the acute shortage of treatment when it had already been paid for by government.
Manifested
Be that as it may, in general, Matsebula underlined that his office team worked tirelessly to audit government departments though the challenge of being short-staffed manifested sometimes.
He admitted that staff inadequacies sometimes caused the office not to perform in-depth audits.
However, where the office made recommendations regarding handling of state funds, it followed them up diligently for their implementation. Not all the recommendations were related to corruption, some have to do with failure in following government funds handling procedures.
But where there were strong indications for corruption, the AG said they were reported to other government organs that combat fraud.
Furthermore, he indicated that his office stood vigilant to ensure that State Owned Enterprises (SOE) complied with regulations to declare profits and bring something into the Government Consolidated Fund.
As a result, the level of compliance was better.
“Lost monies have and are still being recovered as we do our work. In some cases, there are employees or SOEs that were allotted state funds they were not entitled to.
The office works hard to see to it that such irregularities are corrected,” he said.
Additionally, he said ‘you may have heard in parliament that millions of Emalangeni of taxpayers’ money have been recovered. This is the effort of the Auditor General’s office’.
Enshrined
Elements of corruption found by the AG’s office are reported to the police or Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). The role of the office is enshrined in the Constitution of Eswatini, particularly Section 207 (5) and Section 15(3) of the Audit Act No. 4 of 2005.
It entailed overseeing the expenditure of government funds and whether they were used for their intended purposes, which was for the benefit of the nation. The work involved identifying loopholes, if any, in the use of public funds by all departments of government and then recommending how to plug them.
Emphasised
Matsebula emphasised that the role of the office was paramount to protecting the national purse through keeping a keen eye on its use for improving the country’s vision for development.
Asked how he and his team were normally received whenever they visited the departments to execute their duties, he said the reception was generally good, but sometimes they had to enlighten some officers about their mandate.
“We are not enemies of the organs of government, but we are their helpers so that they carry out their jobs professionally and meet all the objectives set out with the allocated funds,” he added.
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