‘What a waste’: Civil society on ACC’s E25m budget ‡ …‘–‹—‡ –‘ ™‘” Ǧ
MBABANE – Is the taxpayer throwing money down the drain in funding operations of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC)?.
Despite apportioning a budget of E million for the commission this financial year, Members of 3arliament (M3s) used words such as unproductive, toothless and dormant when referring to the cur rent state of the ACC.
2ut of complaints reported to the ACC last year, only two were referred to the director of public prosecutions, according to the Annual 3erformance 5eport of the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. Five were referred to other agencies because they did not fall under the ambit of corruption, while were found to be frivolous complaints, which means they lacked substance. 1ine were declined for investigation, while others were still under investiga tion. 2f the in the µunder investiga tions’ tray of the ACC, at least had been brought forward from the previous year. After reading the performance re port, 1hlambeni M3 Man]i =wane had remarked in 3arliament “Considering the meagre output by the ACC, it has become abundantly clear that there is no value for money to the nation on the E million budget that has been reTuested by the ACC.”
Harmonisation
+e sang the same tune with *ege M3 Musa .unene, who suggested that money allocated to the ACC should be suspended under +ead until the harmonisation process had been com pleted. +e said the ACC commissioner had openly said the commission was not doing anything, hence µcriminals had taken advantage of a toothless ACC and are looting with impunity’. +e said these included public servants, who were also involved in fraud, knowing that their misconduct hearings would likely never see the light of day due to the situation at ACC. .unene is Chairman of the 3ublic Accounts Committee (3AC), a govern ment watchdog on public spending.
The Minister of Justice and Consti tutional Affairs, 3holile Shakantu’s response to the doubts about the oper ations of the ACC was standard ± that the commission was continuing to carry out its mandate despite the looming transformation process, referred to as harmonisation. “The ministry would like to put it on record that the ACC is still implementing its legal mandate as per the 3revention of Corruption Act
that is still in force. :e reTuest the ACC budget to be appropriated pending a new legislative direction. The new legislation envisaged is a Bill on the reconstitution of the Commission on +uman 5ights and 3ublic Adminis tration, which will give direction to the cases being investigated by the ACC. 2n the harmonisation process, the minister said her ministry had engaged an expert to share experience on how the three mandates corruption, human rights and public administration could be housed in one institution, including the pros and cons of this set up. The ministry is doing this through technical support from de velopment partners. “The ministry had undertaken a benchmarking exercise in *hana Commission on +uman 5ights and Administrative Justice to learn best practices on having the three constitu tional mandates under one institution,” she said.
Institutions
The ministry had also undertaken a benchmarking exercise in .enya 1ation al Commission on +uman 5ights, .enya Commission on Administrative Justice (2mbudsman) and .enya Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission to learn more on how these institutions collabo rated with each other. Minister Shakantu also said “To expedite the harmonisation process, a single source approach is be ing solicited from the tender Board.” She told M3s that the Ministry of 3ublic Ser vice had published an advert with the aim of recruiting a consultant to assist with the harmonisation process. “+owever, no vendor showed interest. To expedite the process, a single source approach is being solicited from the tender Board,” she said. Members of the civil society have Moined the chorus of doubting the sustainability of the ACC.
Director Transformation at the Feder ation of Eswatini Business Community (FESBC) Mavela Sigwane, said all efforts aimed at stimulating service at the ACC should be expedited because the service they rendered was essential.
“:e noted the M3s concerns. They are the ones who made the ACC Act. It defeats logic how they now feel incapa ble of dealing with this matter,” he said.
Sigwane was of the view that the country needed to do an introspection if it wanted to pursue the agenda of renewal.
“:e need to look into all the Boards and committees in parastatals to see if they are still efficient, according to their mandate. :e have to look at the dominating private sector companies. In such a poorly performing economy, how are they getting to those levels of profitability,” he said. Sigwane said the ACC brought a change in the mindset of the people during its hay days, and should not have been allowed to falter. +e said the suggestion by government research wing, ESE53AC, to reduce the number of parastatals was welcome.
Inquiry
“In an effort to reduce the corruption, a commission of inTuiry chaired by an independent Mudge must be appointed,” he said. +uman 5ights /awyer Sipho *umed]e said lack of capacity on par liamentarians was partly to blame for the inefficiency of the ACC. +e said 3arliament should have long taken initi ative to amend the legal framework that caused the ACC not to operate efficient ly. “There was nothing wrong done by the Judiciary. 3arliament was supposed to promulgate legislation to harmonise this a long time ago,” *umed]e opined. Asked if it was proper to withhold the budget of the ACC pending the harmo nisation process, he said such would be unfair to the employees, who had done nothing wrong.
“This is a matter of statute and not the ACC,” he said. Madlangampisi M3 Sibusiso µScorpion’ 1xumalo said M3s wanted to suspend the budget but the Chairman of the Justice 3ortfolio Com mittee, Sibusiso Mabhanisi Dlamini, said it would be unfair to the ACC. “2ur concern is that they are taking money but we are seeing little or no output. The country was said to be losing E million per month on unexplained expenditures, some of which are based on corruption. :e need an institution that is vibrant,” he said. +e said M3s were hopeful that the Bill that would harmonise the ACC would be tabled before the dissolution of 3arliament. The Ministry of Justice had not responded to a set of Tuestions on why the process was taking too long, at the time of compiling this report.
*overnment Spokesperson Alpheous 1xumalo said any kind and type of merger was not an easy task, especially where harmonisation was an essential component. +e said this was so espe cially in a situation where µyou will have to harmonise the obMectives of one entity
MBABANE - Spokesperson of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Jabu Phakathi says the commission is continuing to pursue cases of corruption, pending the transition as per constitutional provisions.
“The ACC continues to pursue allegations of corruption complaints as per the provisions of the 3reven tion of Corruption Act, . The commission will continue until there is a new legislative direction on the matter,” she said. She confirmed that the ACC managed to finalise two cas es over the past year and forwarded same to the director of public prose cutions as per its mandate.
“The ACC is part of a task team that was set up by the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, in a bid to find a lasting solution to the issue of overlaps in mandates. The ACC has also been part of bench marking exercises aimed at finding best practices from other countries in an effort to assist the country in taking an informed decision on the matter,” she said.
from those which must be collapsed.’
“There s also the factor of the human capital, which must be aligned to the needs and aspirations of the new entity. :hile it is true that Cabinet approved and sanctioned the process, however, being aware of the volume of work in volved there was no time limit imposed on when the aligned and harmonisation exercise should have been done,” he said. 1xumalo said government was highly committed to fighting corruption at all levels and areas of society. “And the nation must be reminded that it is not only the Anti Corruption Commission that fights corruption in this country, but the police service, in particular, has done and is doing a commendable Mob in this country in as far as busting corruption is concerned, he added. +e noted that in 3arliament, there was a 3ublic Accounts Committee (3AC), which had done won derfully in terms of fighting corruption, especially in the public sector. +e also named the media as one of the potent force in the fight against corruption. 5emember the continued slogan of the Deputy 3rime Minister, Senator Themba 1hlanganiso Masuku, which he repeated throughout all his statements of which says, µnawe uli phoyisa!’. Fight ing and wading corruption is a national collective duty and responsibility. It s a total citi]enry s call, he said.