Where will the money go?

%

< now, we are all aware that government has embarked on a bold drive to merge public enterprises, in an effort to bring relief to the public purse.

The idea is to make adjustments that will see less money being moved from the national budget to State-owned enterprises (SOE).

It is unbelievable but true that small as Eswatini currently has 49 parastatals.

The ongoing programme aims to reduce this number to at least 31.

To put matters into perspective, some of the parastatals are the EswatiniBank (formerly known as SwaziBank), Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC), Eswatini Television Authority, the University of Eswatini, Eswatini Housing Board and the Eswatini Civil Aviation Authority (ESWACAA).

It is proposed that there should be only seven sector regulators as parastatals, six commercial enterprises, five sector development enterprises and four utilities.

There will also be three government agencies, the same number of pension/insurance enterprises and just two atypical public enterprises.

This would result in the around E3 billion in total annual subventions to these government-owned companies being significantly reduced.

The reforms will come courtesy of a study conducted by the Eswatini Economic Policy Analysis and Research Centre (ESEPARC).

The study was to establish how merging parastatals could be carried out.

At least nine recommendations came out of this study and have been adopted by Cabinet. This actually happened last year, setting the ball rolling for this already contentious exercise. it is,

It is contentious because it raises questions as to the status of the people employed by the parastatals that will be affected.

Will they be redeployed or retrenched?

If so, who goes and who remains and based on what criterion?

These are just some of the questions I am actually asking myself as well.

We have already heard that about 400 people have reason to worry about what the future holds for them as far as this merging exercise if concerned.

The Royal Eswatini National Airways Corporation (RENAC) is among the parastatals likely to stop getting subventions from government.

We are talking about an entity that has been allocated more than 172.5 million for its operations in the current financial year.

This is money from the public purse, which means it comes from the pockets of people like you and I.

The ESWACAA for example, stands to be unbundled, with the regulatory function being separated from the operational one.

Government is expected to work towards finding an independent operator to run the King Mswati III International Airport.

I cannot get into the nitty-gritty of the entire exercise but the bottom line is that government is on a mission to save millions of Emalangeni.

Is this something worth celebrating, though? At face value, yes.

Government is onto a good thing here, a programme that is actually long overdue. Just like the bloated civil service, this country does not need so many parastatals, especially with most of them feeding off the public purse.

It is a good initiative ,that is just one of many that government has initiated in the recent past, in a drive to either save money or generate more revenue.

You may have noted that of late, Cabinet seems to have several good ideas, which are being implemented by the various government structures.

Service delivery is `on the up and up,’ as the English say.

Do not get me wrong, there is still much more to be done to reach the stage where the nation will be content but even the worst pessimist will agree that things are happening.

The motivation for this will remain speculation for now.

However, the big question is: Where will all the saved money go?

Just like in many countries around the globe, there have been a few protests even here in Eswatini over the out-of-control rise in commodity prices.

Fuel, bread, cooking oil and other shopping basket item prices continue to rise.

Add the rise in service charge for stuff like birth certificates, identity documents and vehicle tax and you have a situation where even the employed are struggling under the weight of day to day expenses.

So, if government promises to make cuts in expenditure, should the taxpayer or consumer celebrate? The jury is still out on that one.

For one, a casual observer could argue that it would be futile for government to go all out in cutting down on expenses, only for the money saved to be siphoned by the corrupt elements littered all over the government machinery.

It would be disappointing if the saved millions of Emalangeni would be channeled to underserving people with access to the public purse.

However, we would all celebrate and egg government on in its drive to generate more revenue and save money if the funds would be channeled to commodities that will benefit the man on the street.

The chronically problematic health system is just one of the critical departments that deserve to be boosted with the cash that will be saved from the merging of SOE and other initiatives.

For far too long, ordinary emaSwati without access to medical aid have been forced to dig deep into their hollow pockets to buy medication from private pharmacies.

These are people who visit public health facilities and stand on long queue for hours, hoping to get treatment at reasonable cost.

The public health system is supposed to be subsidised, so that it benefits mostly those who either do not earn much or are unemployed, like pensioners. Unfortunately, these citizens have not enjoyed this benefit much. Speaking of pensioners, one is reminded of the never-ending and legitimate calls for an increase in the social grants paid to elderly men and women of Eswatini. The E500 per month, which is only paid quarterly as E1 500, was never enough when commodity prices were lower. It is worse today, when even the well-off make mental calculations before they pick up items from store shelves.

I have mentioned just two but there are a handful of other areas where the money should go, to bring smiles to the faces of citizens.