BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – It was inappropriate for the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to have suspended its sitting.
This is a legal advice expressed by Attorney General (AG) Sifiso Mashampu Khumalo today (Monday, June 10, 2024) in the House of Assembly. Khumalo was talking about a decision taken by the PAC to suspend its sittings. He was asked to provide clarity on the matter. The statement by Khumalo means the PAC is expected to resume its sittings.
Khumalo said it was inappropriate for the PAC to suspend its sittings, based on a statement made by Prime Minister Russell Dlamini on another forum. The AG further clarified that Government had three arms, being the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary.
The AG stated that these arms of Government worked independently of one another. Because of that, the PAC had to continue working because the statement by the PM had no effect on the PAC. The PAC is a committee under the Legislature, as it consists of Members of Parliament (MPs) that were elected by the House of Assembly to play an oversight role on money spent by Government.
This matter emanates from a statement made by the premier on Thursday last week (June 6, 2024) when he was asked by The Nation Editor Bheki Makhubu to clarify on what happened regarding the E180 million, which was said to have gone missing from the National Disaster National Management Agency (NDMA). This was contained in a report of Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula.
At the time, Dlamini was still the chief executive officer (CEO) of the parastatal. In response, the prime minister said what was said by the auditor general was not true and that pointed to the incompetence in that office. Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg said it was also not correct to assume that Dlamini misappropriated that money because the E180 million (and eventually the E210 million) was used to buy equipment to fight COVID-19 and procurement procedure had to be disregarded because the need was urgent.
Following that statement, the PAC on the following day decided to suspend its sittings, stating that it would seek guidance on the matter. The committee felt the statement by the PM had a bearing on the work it did.
