Empty-handed Ministry of Health irks PAC

THE first sitting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) kickstarted on a sour note for the Ministry of Health as the first to be attended to.

With an expectation of presenting responses to five reports, the Ministry issued excuses and apologies for having none.

This was not well received by the PAC’s chairperson and members who did not hold back in calling out and chastising the ministry’s conduct in this regard.

The Controlling Officer and Principal Secretary Khanyakwezwe Mabuza told the committee that the ministry had done its best to ensure that it meaningfully and diligently responded to the Auditor General’s findings in the respective reports.

“We apologise that the entire team in the ministry is made up of new people and trying to get responses is proving difficult as we have been knocking on different doors and hit a snag, but we are not giving up. The turnover is very high in the Ministry, and we request that we be given more time to get the response of the reports,” Mabuza said.

The ministry was expected to respond to the PAC recommendations on the 2022 financial report, recommendations on the 2022 compliance report, the AG’s 2022 financial audit tabled in 2023, and the two acquisition and distribution of medicines reports by the AG.

Of these, the Ministry only responded to the 2023 acquisition and distribution of medicines report by the AG. What worsened the situation was the cover page of the report, which stated that it was from the Deputy Prime Minister’s office instead of the Ministry of Health.

This resulted in committee members questioning the document’s authenticity, however, Mabuza explained that it was a result of having to address the DPMO in his previous workplace. This was concluded to have been a copy-and-paste situation by the members.

Vice Chairperson of the PAC Nhlambeni MP Manzi Zwane said it was shocking that Mabuza was insinuating that all the employees in the ministry are new, which is not true as his team on Tuesday was made up of familiar faces who had appeared in the previous parliament.

“He may be new, but the ministry is not, some people have been working there longer and exist to give the answers needed. I am failing to understand what he’s saying because this implies that when a person leaves the ministry, they take with them everything needed to give answers where necessary,” he said.

Zwane said he was not accepting Mabuza’s submission and suggested that the Ministry be given seven days to respond in full, as this is one of the ministries that has left emaSwati with a thorn that requires plucking which needs to be done through the responses. Therefore, the submission by Mabuza was only seen to be worsening the situation and proof that a lot is amiss in the ministry and cannot be left at that.