King Mswati III’s Government has fallen foul of one of
its most important aid donors, the United States, because it hides information
about how its spends taxpayers’ money from the people.
In a review of the 2016 Swaziland budget, the US State
Department found details about how money given to the Royal Family was spent
was missing. Also hidden was detailed information about spending on the
military, police and correctional services.
The Fiscal
Transparency Report said some information about these expenditures
were given, ‘but lacked detail and were not subject to the same
oversight as the rest of the budget’.
The United States undertakes annual reports on ‘fiscal
transparency’ of governments that receive U.S. assistance to ‘help ensure U.S.
taxpayer money is used appropriately’.
The report noted that, ‘revenues from natural
resources and land leases were not included in the budget’.
In Swaziland, King Mswati, who rules as sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch, takes 25 percent of all income generated from
mining and mineral extraction. He holds this ‘in trust for the Swazi nation,’
but in fact uses the money to finance his own lavish lifestyle. He has at least
13 palaces, a private jet plane (with another on the way), fleets of
top-of-the-range BMW and Mercedes cars and at least one Rolls Royce.
Meanwhile, seven in ten of the King’s subjects live in
abject poverty with incomes less than US$2 per day.
Regarding, contracts for mining and mineral
extraction, the report stated, ‘Basic information on awards was not always
publicly available. The process actually used to award licenses and contracts
has apparently been broadly consistent with the law or regulation, though the
process has consisted of submitting applications for licenses directly to the King.’
The report concluded, ‘Fiscal transparency in
Swaziland would be improved by: providing more detail on expenditures and
revenues in the budget, particularly natural resource revenues and expenditures
of the Royal Family; subjecting the entire budget to audit and oversight; and
making basic information on natural resource extraction awards publicly
available.’
See also
SWAZILAND:
MASSIVE SECURITY SPENDING
SWAZI MPs REJECT NATIONAL BUDGET
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