͹Ͳ ‘ ƒ”‡† ˆ‘”…‡• ˜‡Š‹…Ž‡•ǡ ‘–Š‡”• PROCUREMENT OF VEHICLES:

MBABANE – The Central Transport Administration (CTA) spent at least E70 million on the procurement of 42 armed security forces vehicles and 27 others for different government ministries.

The Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF) had 16 vehicles purchased for them with a combined figure of E12 052 456, while His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) had 15 vehicles procured for them with a combined figure of E8 698 601. The Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) received 11 vehicles with a combined figure of E6 564 799.

An unmentioned number of vehicles amounting to E23.7 million were procured for the King’s Office, Ministry of Health, Finance and police escorts. Four BMW police escorts cost government E4 million while the King’s Office received a fire engine amounting to E3.5 million.

Backlog

Priority was given to security forces which had a backlog on their vehicle replacement programme with E30 million budget and the remainder of E40 million catered for 2021/22 commitments for the replacement of motor vehicles across ministries as revealed in the Ministry of Public Works and Transport’s annual performance report for the financial year ended March 31, 2022.

The chief justice, as detailed in the report, received a vehicle amounting to E1.8 million. The Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services received a fire engine amounting to E14.5 million. The CTA department had been allocated a budget of E181 675 638 this financial year and expenditure for the government parastatal stood at E248 962 153 by the end of the third quarter and projections indicated

down. Sources revealed that the youth questioned the EBC team on why they conducted elections before the dialogue.

It was further said that some were questioning why they were supposed to participate in the elections when MPs were arrested for voicing out their views.

The meeting continued with the individuals who remained behind when others left after the arrival of the police.

Dispersed

At Hhohho Emuva, the residents went to the chiefdom where the meeting was scheduled to take place but the EBC team did not arrive until they were dispersed.

It was later gathered from Indvuna of the chiefdom, Absalom Ndlangamandla, that he received a call from one person who had identified himself as Dlamini, who informed him that they were no longer coming to their chiefdom.

According to Ndlangamandla, Dlamini told him that they would come at a date yet to be verified and did not give further reasons why they would

King’s Office, Finance, Health, Police(escorts)

Fire and Emergency Services Defence

Correctional Services

Various ministries

Police

Police escorts-BMW

King’s Office Fire engine Tinkhundla

Chief Justice

Economic Planning

Ministry of Works

that E326 020 128 would be spent by the end of the financial year as depicted in the report.

“This indicates an over-expenditure of 79 per cent which is a result of CTA’s ongoing reforms where ministries are required to transfer their budget to CTA through Journal Voucher (JV) for replacement, service, maintenance and repairs of vehicles,” reads the report. The CTA is a department within the Ministry of Public Works and Transport that is mandated to provide all government ministries with transport, mechanical services and fuel. This includes procurement of vehicles, plant and equipment; it also provides service, maintenance and fuel.

Renting

Apart from the procured vehicles for the armed forces, it is worth mentioning that Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Thulani Mkhaliphi, revealed to the Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula, that an amount of E8 342 237.64 was spent in respect of renting the vehicles for the country’s ‘armed forces’ to intervene during the unrest as previously reported in the

no longer be present.

“We got the communication from them, not the other way round,” he said.

Meanwhile, EBC Communications Officer Mbonisi Bhembe when sought for comment, said they received the communication from the chiefdom not to go there. When asked why, he referred this reporter to the chiefdom as the relevant people to respond.

On another note, Bhembe was questioned on the feedback they were getting from the people since they started the civic voter education exercise and he said all had been going well and the reception was welcoming.

He did highlight the incidents of Hosea and Somntongo, but mentioned that they conducted the lessons after all.

“We would like to clarify that our duties do not include clarifying what happens in Parliament and other places, as ours has to do with the elections only,” he said.

Bhembe added that some people did not understand that while stating that they were hoping for more positive outcomes as they continued with the education process. -

1 16 15 8 11 4 1 6 1 2 4

Times SUNDAY.

In late June and early July 2021, the Kingdom of Eswatini experienced unprecedented civil unrest, which resulted in dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. The unrest was marked by violence, looting, arson and large-scale destruction of public and private property. The situation overwhelmed the police force, and the army had to be roped in to assist, something that caused international uproar as the country was labelled a military State.

Anumber of private vehicles were seen being driven around by members of the State security forces in the midst of the unrest.

Meanwhile, on the maintenance of vehicles, it was stated in the report that the workshops in the five depots had a staff complement of 65 technicians with various technical skills and are responsible for service, maintenance and repairs of government vehicles, plant and equipment as per the above schedule.

It was revealed that the turnaround time for vehicles that had been received in the ministry’s workshops was not the best due to the lengthy procedures that were recently adopted in a bid to improve on controls towards eliminating wasteful expenditure through loss of spare parts that were ordered and not fitted in government vehicles, as well as the unfilled positions which had been vacant for some time due to hiring freeze and the transformation uncertainties.

E23 739 248.65

E14 500 000.00 E12 052 456.55 E8 689 601.25 E8 424 984.83 E6 564 799.15 E4 046 885.28 E3 596 368.61 E2 950 267.50 E1 873 806.02 E1 318 421.64 E915 806.60