Senators highlight Treasury bribery claims
MBABANE – Senators have alleged that for one to be paid by government through the Treasury Department, they have to pay government officials.
Senator Stukie Motsa detailed to the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, that there were rumours that people were actually made to pay certain amounts for them to get paid at the Treasury Department.
These allegations of bribery at the Treasury Department were also highlighted by Senator Sigombeni Dlamini who submitted that corruption was very much alive in government departments so much so that when one did not bribe the personnel at that department, nothing would be done for them.
He challenged the minister to investigate this issue and put in some measures to curb it because it was painting an ugly picture of the operations of government. “In SiSwati, there is a saying that goes, “kuyavuzavuza, nameka ngodaka”.
The minister should see to it that he closes whatever gaps that are enhancing the acts of corruption or fraud in government departments,” he said.
This was during the ministry’s portfolio committee’s annual performance report debate for the financial year 2023/24 and budget estimates for the financial year 2024/25 in Senate yesterday.
In response to the bribery claims at the government department, Rijkenberg said the fact that there were developments of people being fired over fraud or corruption acts at the Treasury or other government agencies like the Eswatini Revenue Service it was a sign of health, rather than it being a sign of rot in that entity.
He mentioned that when corruption came to a stage where it was embedded, it meant that an entity could not fire anyone because everyone had information on the other one and they would all be holding to one another, hence firing one would open a can of worms for others.
“When an entity fires one person because of acts of corruption and there is no domino effect to it, it is proof that the phenomenon has not pressed that entity to the core and it can still be fixed,” he said. The minister highlighted that he actually heaps praises to government entities when he learns that they have fired a person for corruption because that is a positive sign that the corruption is at a manageable stage in that entity.