Leave the E11.75bn SACU windfall
ACCORDING to an analysis posted by Transparency International on January 31, 2023, Sub-Saharan Africa ranked as the lowest scoring region on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in 2022. With an average score of 32/100, the region arguably has the highest levels of corruption than anywhere else in the world.
This should be worrying for any country in the region, including Eswatini. Out of 180 countries that have been surveyed, the Kingdom of Eswatini is ranked 130, eight places worse than the 120 ranking the country was at in 2021. What this means is that, in the world there are only 50 countries that are more corrupt than Eswatini. 129 have performed better than the kingdom.
The CPI draws upon 13 data sources which capture the assessment of experts and business executives on a number of corrupt behaviours in the public sector, including; bribery, diversion of public funds, use of public office for private gain, nepotism in the civil service and State capture. Some of the sources also look at the mechanisms available to prevent corruption in a country, such as: The government’s ability to enforce integrity mechanisms; the effective prosecution of corrupt officials; red tape and excessive bureaucratic burden; the existence of adequate laws on financial disclosure, conflict of interest prevention and access to information; and legal protection for whistleblowers, journalists and investigators.
The CPI report was released just days after Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg announced that Eswatini would get E11.75 billion in Southern African Customs Union (SACU) receipts, which is a major increment from the E5.8 billion received in the previous financial year.
DEVIOUS
I can bet with my last dime that the day the minister made this announcement, endless phone calls were made and meetings were held by devious emaSwati to devise underhand tactics of how to lay their hands on varying portions of the E11.75 billion.
In their discussions, I can pre-empt that these scheming emaSwati agreed that they stood a more than better chance to get away with their plans because the country lacks the necessary tools to prevent this. The country’s Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) is as good as dead. Parliament tries to bite but such attempts are squashed by failure of mandated bodies to implement recommendations of the august House. Last September, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) decried how it felt disrespected by the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) Board of directors for failing to implement their recommendations to suspect Chief Executive Officer Russell Dlamini.
This followed the agency’s failure to account for millions of Emalangeni in public funds that were spent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mind you, the CPI report has mentioned that the the COVID-19 pandemic severely affected livelihoods, deepened inequalities and increased corruption risks across Sub-Saharan Africa. The report has hit the nail on the head.
In Eswatini, the NDMA failed to account for over E3 million spent on hand sanitisers during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other audit queries that were raised included: Unaccounted for expenditure for emergency response projects amounting to over E11.4 million; unaccounted for expenditure for COVID-19 response project amounting to over E30.9 million; unaccounted for and undisclosed fuel funds amounting to E10.8 million; and unaccounted for funds for child-headed households programme and Cyclone Eloise project amounting to over E34 million, to name a few.
RECOMMENDED
The PAC recommended for the CEO, CFO and procurement manager to be suspended pending further investigations on the matter, however, the Board allegedly ruled against the recommendation.
Can you just believe this!
A whole Parliament body that derives its mandate from the country’s constitution having its recommendations thrown out the window by a Board!
This too, is corruption. No wonder Madlangempisi MP Sibusiso ‘Scorpion’ Nxumalo, during the debate of the NDMA spending of public funds, said: “We are under siege. Perhaps it is high time that we have an agency like the FBI.
The corruption in this country is so serious and if it continues to be embedded in the national budget, then service delivery will continue being affected. Parliament is overlooked when it points out some irregularities and such is detrimental to the development of the country.” He was quite right. Corruption in this country is at alarming levels such that one might be led into believing that it is now legal to be corrupt.
I can tell you right here, right now that the PAC will soon be faced with much bigger challenges to hold certain individuals accountable on how monies from the E11.75 billion were spent. The Office of the Auditor General will unearth scandal after scandal in the coming financial years.
Look, the looting was happening in the midst of the country being faced with liquidity challenges. How much more then will they loot now that there are billions available in the public purse? The minister of finance has to watch this purse with a hawk’s eyes. As reported by the PAC, the country loses E91 million a month to corruption and this translates to E1.2 billion a year, something that is said to have been happening since 2019.
What was also shocking was a revelation by the PAC that ministries and government departments had spent E7.4 billion without Parliament approval. Sadly, no one has been held accountable for such unauthorised expenditure.
ASSESSMENT
At the rate this is happening, by the time the next CPI is published, Eswatini will definitely be in the top 10 of the world’s most corrupt countries. This is because as part of compiling the CPI, one of the 13 data sources is a Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) carries out by the African Development Bank, which looks into issues of corruption, accountability and transparency in the public sector. The CPIA is carried out by a group of country economists with vast experience in policy analysis.
The knowledge of these experts is complemented with that of local contacts that provide both quantitative and qualitative insights. Peer discussions are also used to monitor the quality of the findings.
This criterion assesses the extent to which the executive can be held accountable for its use of funds and the results of its actions by the electorate and by the legislature and Judiciary, and the extent to which public employees within the executive are required to account for the use of resources, administrative decisions, and results obtained. Both levels of accountability are enhanced by transparency in decision-making, public audit institutions, access to relevant and timely information, and public and media scrutiny.
National and sub-national governments should be appropriately weighted. Each of three dimensions are rated separately: The accountability of the executive to oversight institutions and of public employees for their performance; access of civil society to information on public affairs; and State capture by narrow vested interests.
If you look at this CPIA, Eswatini scores low in all the latter three; accountability, access to information and narrow vested interests capturing the State.
ANNUAL
As Cabinet held its annual retreat this week, one hopes discussions were plenty on how to step up anti-corruption measures. A decision has hopefully been made with regard to the future of the docile ACC. No fat cats should feast on this public money. This E11.7 billion windfall shoud be spent on the betterment of all emaSwati, particularly the disadvantaged.
It should not be directed into the pockets of a privileged few. If that happens, then we are guaranteed of further unrest in this country. There is no better way to sign off this article than quoting MP Nxumalo (Scorpion) when he said: “Corruption is worse than prostitution (sex work), because the latter affects a few individuals while the former affects the country at large.
These are monies that could change a lot in government’s operations as hospitals don’t have drugs and our roads are in a very bad state. However, it is only a few individuals benefitting from it, through criminal ways.”