{"id":17552,"date":"2022-07-17T09:34:17","date_gmt":"2022-07-17T09:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pac-demands-govt-action"},"modified":"2022-07-17T10:29:56","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T10:29:56","slug":"pac-demands-govt-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pac-demands-govt-action","title":{"rendered":"PAC demands Govt action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Parliament has stepped up its oversight role over the executive by demanding ministries accused of malfeasance update the legislature on steps they have taken to remedy situations complained about, Public Eye can report.
\nThe National Assembly, which has authority to check governmental excesses, has directed Principal Secretaries in affected ministries to write to the Speaker on measures taken to comply with Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommendations contained in its report released last month.<\/p>\n

The directive is contained in Clerk of the National Assembly Advocate Lebohang Maema\u2019s memo dated June 3, 2019 to all government ministries. Maema informed Principal Secretaries that Parliament expects compliance with the recommendations in the report adopted during its May 28 and 29 sittings.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour esteemed Offices may be aware that on Tuesday 28 May and Wednesday 29 May, 2019, during (the) 2:30 pm sitting, the House (National Assembly) debated on an adopted motion on (the) Report on the consolidated financial statements of the government of Lesotho for the three years: 2013\/2014, 2014\/15 and 2015\/16\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease be informed that this being the resolution of the house, I am bound by standing order No. 105 to inform you and anticipate your subsequent compliance thereon\u2026\u201d the memo further states.<\/p>\n

According to Standing Order 105, ministers or ministries shall within 30 days of receiving communication from the Clerk of Parliament on an issue affecting their ministry report to the Speaker on the steps taken to implement resolutions of parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the resolution or recommendation has not been implemented within 30 days, the relevant minister shall report in writing to the speaker the reasons for not implementing the resolution or recommendation, steps undertaken to implement the resolution or recommendation and the plan to implement the resolution.<\/p>\n

\u201d Their reports on compliance with the recommendations shall be presented to Parliament and debated in the house.<\/p>\n

Government Secretary (GS), Moahloli Mphaka declined to comment on the matter saying a memo is an internal communication between government ministries and was therefore confidential.<\/p>\n

He refused to discuss the contents of the memo. \u201cWas the savingarm directed to you? If it was directed to the PSs like you are saying, then why are you involved? Is Public Eye also a Principal Secretary?\u201d
\n\u201cI do not even want to know what it entails; it was not directed to me.
\nA savingram is a communication between government ministries, I don\u2019t understand how you got hold of the savingram which you are neither its initiator or recipient.
\n\u201cCall recipients to the savingram, maybe they will talk about it,\u201d he added. PAC Chairperson, Selibe Mochoroane told Public Eye the PAC\u2019s recommendations once adopted by parliament become resolutions and therefore binding.<\/p>\n

He said the committee is expecting written submissions on implementation in line with the June 3 memo. \u201cOnce adopted by parliament, PAC recommendations become parliamentary resolutions and are binding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

PAC is a sessional committee of Parliament established under Standing Order no. 97 (5) which reads: \u201cThe committee shall consider the financial statements and accounts of all government ministries and departments, executive organs of state, courts, authorities and commissions established by the constitution and of each of the two houses of Parliament; consider any audit reports issued on the financial statements, accounts or reports referred to the committee by the House, the speakers or the standing orders.
\n\u201d It may report on any financial statement, accounts or reports recommended by Parliament or initiate any investigation in its area of competence.<\/p>\n

Also, the PAC may perform any other duty assigned to it in terms of the constitution, standing orders or any other legislation or by parliament including duties concerning parliamentary financial oversight or supervision of government ministries, departments, courts, authorities and commissions established by the constitution and of each of the two houses of Parliament.
\nIn its recent report, the committee considered three financial statements: 2013\/2014, 2014\/15 and 2015\/16 and made a number of findings. The report revealed that Lesotho lost M1.48 billion to corruption and under-collection of revenues over the three financial years it considered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe PAC wishes to bring to the attention of this honourable house and the whole nation the lost funds due to corruption and laxity to collect revenue by some line ministries and departments and reiterate the gravity of poor internal controls across the board,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be borne in mind that the above figure is the minimum. It is the amount discovered by the committee only on the areas where it was able to touch.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the funds were lost due to corruption as evidenced by criminal and fraudulent cases perpetrated by the public officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother significant loss pertains to taxes, royalties and dividends that the government is supposed to collect from mining companies, parastatals and other state-owned enterprises.<\/p>\n

\u201d The committee recommended that internal controls and sanctions be tightened across the board to deter public officers from misusing funds.<\/p>\n

Some key recommendations included revamping revenue collection by government ministries, adding the Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) \u201cmust collect all non-tax revenue on behalf of government\u201d.<\/p>\n

PAC also recommended government play a bigger role in the mining sector \u201cin order to acquire substantial equity to have control over our natural resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Minister of Finance in consultation with the Minister of Mining must report back to parliament within six months,\u201d the report reads.
\nAgain, PAC recorded concern at the hemorrhaging of public funds through fraudulent procurement practices, and recommended establishment of an independent Bureau of Procurement as a regulatory body, coupled with formation of an electronic procurement system (e-procurement) within three years.
\n\u201cThe committee has also noted with concern the very slow execution of justice in Lesotho when dealing with commercial crimes.
\nThe committee therefore recommends the establishment of a special court assigned for these cases within a period not exceeding two years,\u201d states the report. The committee also expressed concern with the wanton and irregular transfer of police officers investigating illicit financial flows.<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Parliament has stepped up its oversight role over the executive by demanding ministries accused of malfeasance update the legislature on steps they have taken to remedy situations complained about, Public Eye can report. The National Assembly, which has authority to check governmental excesses, has directed Principal Secretaries in affected ministries to write […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":17551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12,16],"tags":[233,246,245,163],"class_list":["post-17552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-parliament"],"yoast_head":"\nPAC demands Govt action - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Parliament has stepped up its oversight role over the executive by demanding ministries accused of malfeasance update th ...\" \/>\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\/pac-demands-govt-action\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PAC demands Govt action\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Parliament has stepped up its oversight role over the executive by demanding ministries accused of malfeasance update th ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pac-demands-govt-action\" \/>\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=\"2022-07-17T09:34:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-17T10:29:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_17-62d3e489b9e99.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=\"5 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\/pac-demands-govt-action#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pac-demands-govt-action\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"PAC demands Govt action\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-17T09:34:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-17T10:29:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pac-demands-govt-action\"},\"wordCount\":978,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pac-demands-govt-action#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_17-62d3e489b9e99.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"Parliament\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pac-demands-govt-action#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pac-demands-govt-action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pac-demands-govt-action\",\"name\":\"PAC demands Govt action - 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