By Sebenele Ndlovu
MBABANE – The Ministry of Health has been given a period of seven days to prepare the reports it was supposed to answer on before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The first day of the PAC session took place yesterday (May 14, 2024) in the House of Assembly and the Ministry of Health was the first one to appear before the committee. However, it appeared that the Ministry had not prepared some reports to answer on some audit queries that had been raised by Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula.
As a result, the Ministry could not answer when the PAC asked some questions, regarding the audit queries raised by Matsebula on the operations of the Ministry of Health. Ministry of Health Principal Secretary (PS) Khanya Mabuza explained that due to a significant turnover of senior officials, the Ministry was unable to locate crucial documents, as there were no records available.
According to Mabuza, the Ministry of Health is dealing with more than just a lack of medical supplies, but it is also facing an administrative crisis. Mabuza informed the PAC that he had written a letter indicating that they lacked all the responses.
He explained that they had made efforts to gather the information by requesting it from individuals who had soon left the Ministry. Mabuza emphasised that there was a significant staff turnover at the ministry, resulting in the unavailability of individuals required to provide responses for previous years.
He further informed the PAC that the financial controller, Nelsiwe Vilakati, had only been her position for two months after previously working in the DPM’s office. He expressed that they had made significant efforts to obtain the responses and were continuing to pursue them. Mabuza also requested more time to submit their responses to allow for analysis.
It was then that the PAC sent the Ministry away, without even discussing the one report, which was submitted to the committee yesterday.
PAC Chairperson Madala Mhlanga expressed confusion as to why the Ministry did not have the necessary reports, as they had been informed in advanced of their appearance before the PAC. Mhlanga added that he had not been made aware of the ministry’s letter as the chairman. He also mentioned that leniency could potentially be granted for the 2023 report that was that submitted, but not for the other required reports.
