Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Auditor-General (AG) report has revealed that the government has paid to the tune of M3, 100,302,205 in compensations, claims and arrears. The report covers the government’s
consolidated financial statements for the financial year ended March 31, 2019. The report covers the government ministries, authorities and corporations, companies which government has
shareholding, development projects and organisations. The flagged ministries are; health, education, development planning, justice and law, home affairs, foreign
affairs, public works, labour and employment, defence, local government, gender, judiciary and small business. The Ministry of Health had to fork out M28, 050, 000 to five claimants for medical negligence, assault and business
damage. For unfair dismissals, salary arrears after restructuring and assault on a student the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) paid M7, 177, 598 to six claimants.
For unspecified nature of contingent, the Ministry of Development Planning had to part ways with M87, 678. On the other hand, to address claims on unfair dismissal and underpayment of arrears
for 36 reported cases, the Ministry of Justice used M1, 089,393. The Ministry of Law is reported to have settled in damages, M3, 025, 000, 000 for diamond mine compensatory damages and
the security on cost award. The Home Affairs paid M7, 201, 051 to 36 claimants on tour imprests claims. M13, 717, 472 is reported to have been settled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in litigation costs while the
Ministry of Public Works settled the claim amounting to M935, 737. The Ministry of Labour was slapped with M100 000 lawsuit. To compensate the 17 months salaries of
its 90 dismissed staff in 2017 the Ministry of Defence had to part ways with M8, 670, 240 as well as M1, 121, 270 for legal claim, payment demands and damages
for loss of profit. To atone for loss of sales and profits, tenders and court order the Ministry of Local Government paid M6, 542, 751. The Ministry of Gender, Sports, Youth
and Recreation and the Judiciary settled M169, 552 and M69, 584 respectively. Similarly the Ministry of Small Business settled a lawsuit for M369, 219.
The AG had expressed concerns over the claims saying they are in part a result of “non-compliance to public procurement procedures”. On the other hand, the ministries of
Agriculture and Food Security, MoET and Public Works suffered a loss of cash and assets. According to the report, the robbers made away with M110, 541.80 at the Ministry of Agriculture which was collected
from the sale of agricultural inputs. The incident has been reported to the police and the investigations are ongoing. Also, the same ministry is reported to
have suffered a loss of tractor tyres valued at M16, 710.42 at the Machinery Stores at Ha-Foso. Despite the matter still being investigated, the report
shows that the preliminary investigations have uncovered the security company assumed the responsibility over the loss. The MoET on the other hand lost M61, 200
at the School Supply Unit and the recovery efforts had been made to the effect that the Principal Secretary of Finance made a correspondence to the alleged
officer requesting him to “show cause why” he cannot be surcharged for the loss. For the M72, 000 loss at the Ministry of Public Works the report said it was owing to “negligence and there was no
evidence in the files that the matter was reported to the Police”. However, the Chief Accounting Officer is reported to have recommended a surcharge to two
alleged officers who are still active within the civil service as per the report. Meanwhile the Acting Auditor-General, Monica Besetsa opinionated thus the financial health of the government:
“[The] consolidated financial statements do not represent fairly the financial position of the Government as at 31 March
2019, and its financial performance and its cash flows for the year ended in
accordance with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). ” Flagging the disparities, the AG highlighted M471 million being the difference between the closing balance of
M6.799 billion as it appears in the Consolidated Statement of Cash Receipts and Payments and the bank balance of M6.328. “The audit revealed that two withdrawals
amounting to M150 million and M300 million were made from Treasury Bills and Bonds account to Consolidated Fund account on 7 December 2018 and 27 December
2018 respectively. However, the Treasury Department failed to provide sufficient documentation substantiating a withdrawal of M300 million; the only
available documents were copies of instruction letters to the Central Bank of Lesotho. As a result, the validity of the withdrawal could not be ascertained,”
further reads the report in pertinent part. While the AG noted the overall budget execution saying it was “satisfactory” the Ministry of Forestry is however
fingered as the lowest in budget execution at 36 percent rate. According to the report there is M1.462 billion from 2017/2018 to 2018/2019 which reflects case decrease per the
financial statements whilst the bank balances reflect M781 million increases. The government external debt as at March 31, 2019 is reported to be M12.661 billion while domestic debt is sitting at
M3.209 billion totalling M15.870 billion, being the 25 percent increase from the 2018 which was M12.691 billion. According to the report the total budget
for the financial year 2018/2019 was M20.950 billion after the revision of M1.992 billion from originally appropriated M19.830 billion. The AG’s office is capacitated by the
Section 117 of the Constitution and the Audit Act of 2016. It is charged with the mandate to audit and publish its findings on the public accounts of the government. It undertakes the following types of audits; financial, compliance and performance audits.
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