{"id":16682,"date":"2022-06-28T11:10:23","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T11:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mind-boggling-theft-of-resources"},"modified":"2022-06-28T11:32:27","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T11:32:27","slug":"mind-boggling-theft-of-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mind-boggling-theft-of-resources","title":{"rendered":"Mind-boggling theft of resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>AN internal audit report prepared by the Ministry of Finance on Covid-19 related expenditure for the financial years 2019\/20-20\/21 has exposed shocking lack of internal controls in implementing Covid-19 activities.
\nWhile the report was released on July 14, 2021 it only came to the public\u2019s attention this week. The report appears to confirm what we have always suspected \u2013 that rogue individuals were exploiting opportunities brought by the Covid-19 pandemic to enrich themselves.
\nTo achieve their goals, such individuals exploited the weak financial control systems within government ministries and in some cases, willfully flouted the government\u2019s procurement regulations. But there have also been shocking cases of wasteful expenditure that are mind-boggling.
\nAll in all, the report appears to back up allegations that some individuals took advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lax internal control mechanisms within the ministries to line up their pockets.
\nThe result has been what has amounted to massive looting of the government resources on an industrial scale. If these individuals are allowed to get away with this massive level of looting, it would set a very bad precedent for Lesotho.<\/p>\n

The auditor discovered that there were \u201cinadequate internal controls in implementing Covid-19 activities\u201d. \u201cWith the amount spent on constructing of park homes for the six border posts, better and existing labs could have been refurbished or proper building structures\u201d could have been built, says the report.<\/p>\n

Most of the funds available were squandered on catering and allowances for staff involved in Covid-19 activities and not core activities to curb the spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

The report also points to what it says is the \u201chigh staff complement at Nacosec\u201d. These public officers got allowances that ranged from M2 000 to as much as M30 000 each between December 2020 and March 2021 totalling M1 711 314.00.
\n\u201cIt is not clear how the rates of these allowances were determined, how they were approved and by whom,\u201d it says.
\nThe whole staff structure at Nacosec was deemed to have been \u201ctoo big, duplicative to Disaster Management Authority (DMA) positions and functions and too costly to the budget\u201d.
\nThe report says prices charged on some goods and services appeared to have been overstated or inflated significantly. These include thermos scanners and fogging machines, tents, park homes, water tanks and hospital beds.
\nIt said the National Covid-19 Secretariat rented Avani Maseru Hotel for office space, accommodation and meals for its deputy CEO without a contract agreement. The requisitions and purchase order were prepared and signed retrospectively, three to four months after services were rendered.<\/p>\n

Nacosec inexplicably went on to acquire \u201ctwo rooms for accommodation and meals\u201d for its deputy CEO at a cost of M1 622 per room raising questions as to \u201cwhy two rooms were rented and how the tenant occupied both of them\u201d.
\nThe report says \u201ccontrols surrounding the Covid-19 initiative are unsatisfactory with regards to safeguarding of assets, compliance with rules and regulations, accomplishment of objectives for the best interests of the government of Lesotho\u201d.
\nOn the basis of the above findings, we would agree with its recommendation that those found guilty of any wasteful expenditure must be held responsible.
\nBut we know that is not how things are done in Lesotho. We are likely to raise some dust and that will be the end of the story and the looting continues.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. AN internal audit report prepared by the Ministry of Finance on Covid-19 related expenditure for the financial years 2019\/20-20\/21 has exposed shocking lack of internal controls in implementing Covid-19 activities. While the report was released on July 14, 2021 it only came to the public\u2019s attention this week. The report appears to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":16681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[233,246,245],"class_list":["post-16682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nMind-boggling theft of resources - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"AN internal audit report prepared by the Ministry of Finance on Covid-19 related expenditure for the financial years 201 ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mind-boggling-theft-of-resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mind-boggling theft of resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"AN internal audit report prepared by the Ministry of Finance on Covid-19 related expenditure for the financial years 201 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mind-boggling-theft-of-resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-28T11:10:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-28T11:32:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_15-62bae6b037e63.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mind-boggling-theft-of-resources#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mind-boggling-theft-of-resources\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Mind-boggling theft of resources\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-28T11:10:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-28T11:32:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mind-boggling-theft-of-resources\"},\"wordCount\":563,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mind-boggling-theft-of-resources#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_15-62bae6b037e63.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mind-boggling-theft-of-resources#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mind-boggling-theft-of-resources\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mind-boggling-theft-of-resources\",\"name\":\"Mind-boggling theft of resources - 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