LTIMATUM TO SORT OUT

MBABANE – The ministries of Finance and Natural Resources and Energy have been given till the end of June to sort out the matter surrounding the allowances of Board members or possibly consider freezing the salaries.

The Ministry of Finance Principal Secretary (PS) Sizakele Dlamini yesterday submitted that Finance could not control a ministry’s budget.

This follows a query the PAC previously raised to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy on the salary payments of members of the Land Management Board (LMB) and Mines and Minerals Board (MMB).

In a previous report, the Ministry of Natural Resources had stated that they had approached the Finance Ministry to inform them that they did not have the budget for the salaries, as the gazette stating that these Board members should be paid was issued in the middle of the financial year.

Salaries

“When we approached Finance, they informed us that we should see how we could make means to pay the salaries and we then resorted to paying the salaries from money allocated to other departments, which resulted in the over-expenditure,” said PS in the Natural Resources Ministry, Dorcas Dlamini.

However, when responding to this query yesterday during the Finance Ministry’s appearance before the PAC, the Finance controlling officer, Sizakele, said they did not get involved or control the budget of ministries. She said the Ministry of Public Service was responsible for the budget allocation and they could respond better to this query.

The Ministry of Public Service’s representative Daisy Dlamini, said the PS in the ministry, Sipho Tsabedze, would be better placed to provide answers on this matter in writing.

The PAC Chairperson, Gege