The Swazi Government ignores the law when spending nearly E10billion (US$840million) of
public money buying goods and services, according to the Swaziland Public
Procurement Regulatory Agency (SPPRA).
SPPRA Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Musa
Sikhondze said government did not stick to rules laid down in the Public
Procurement Act of 2011 when it came to tendering.
He told a meeting of media that government spent about
on average E10 billion on procurement each year. The Times
of Swaziland reported on Monday
(29 January 2018), ‘He stated that they remained challenged to develop systems
that would ensure that there is value for money as government undertakes
procurement procedures but were challenged by the a number of issues that
include budgetary constraints and being understaffed.’
SPPRA Director Policy, Legislation and
Investigations Buhle Dlamini said out of 92 entities, especially in central
government, only three adhered to the procurement act. The newspaper quoted him
saying, ‘At present, we do not know how many tenders are being issued by
government.’
The Times
estimated 97 per cent of government institutions did not stick to the law.
Meanwhile, the United States has once again criticised
Swaziland for the secrecy there is around the national budget. The State
Department’s annual Fiscal Transparency Report for 2017 says there has been
‘no significant improvement’. Swaziland is ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch.
The
report said revenues from natural resources and land leases were not included
in the budget. It added, ‘Expenditures to support the royal family were
included in the budget but lacked specific detail and were not subject to the
same oversight as the rest of the budget.’
It
criticised the role of King Mswati in awarding mining licences. It said, ‘The
criteria and procedures for awarding natural resource extraction licenses and
contracts were outlined in law, but the opacity of the procedures, which
involve submitting applications for licenses directly to the king, cast doubt
on whether the government actually followed the law in practice.
‘Basic
information on natural resource extraction awards was not always publicly
available.’
King
Mswati takes 25 percent of all mining royalties in his kingdom. He is said to
hold this money ‘in trust for the nation’ but in fact uses it to fund his own
lavish lifestyle. He has at least 13 palaces in the tiny kingdom with a
population of about 1.3 million people. He has a fleet of top-of-the-range
Mercedes and BMW cars and at least one Rolls Royce. He has a private airplane
and is expected to take delivery of another during 2018.
Seven
in ten of his subjects live in abject poverty with incomes of less than US$2
per day.
See
also
U.S.
SAYS ‘BUDGET LACKS TRANSPARENCY’
SWAZILAND:
MASSIVE SECURITY SPENDING
SWAZI
MPs REJECT NATIONAL BUDGET
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