‘Mantšali Phakoana
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) intends to sue political parties for their failure to account for funding received from the electoral body during the October 7, 2022 general elections.
The IEC director of elections, Mpaiphele Maqutu, told a press conference this week that the commission was concerned by the parties’ failure to comply with the Public Financial Management Act, 2011 that calls on them to account for received funds.
Maqutu said the parties did not provide supporting documents and this had resulted in the IEC failing to update its accounting books.
Out of the 51 political parties registered with the electoral commission, 37 had also failed to abide by the National Assembly Elections Act, 2011, by not fully accounting for funds allocated to them.
Maqutu explained that the IEC is allocated M5 million for every national assembly elections, the fund he said are from the government consolidated fund, which is divided by the number of registered parties contesting for elections.
The funds are intended to cater for campaigning, political parties represented in the national, and paying party agents.
The M4 million set aside for campaigning was given to the 65 political parties contesting the elections.
Since the 2022 elections, the IEC has deregistered 15 parties. Of these, four were dissolved, 10 were found to be non-compliant, while the other party was found to have produced fraudulent documentation.
The party with the highest number of votes, the Revolution for Prosperity (RFP), was allocated M1.6 million for garnering 201, 478) votes, followed by the Democratic Congress (DC) with 128, 517 votes. The latter received M979, 461 96. The other parties including those newly registered were given a total of M21, 214 per party.
In March this year, 47 political parties received a total of M20 million for payment of party agents during the said elections.
However, Maqutu noted that out of these 47 parties, only 14 were 100 percent compliant in accounting for the funds they received. Six ranged between 81 to 95 percent compliant, 11 ranged between 44 to 73 percent, with another 11 ranging between seven to 35 percent compliant.
According to Maqutu, five parties never accounted for the funds they received for the three purposes.
He indicated that the challenge of parties failing to account comes way back, further admitting that the IEC had never acted enough to show the seriousness of the matter.
Maqutu said between January and April this year, he had reminded the parties to submit their financial reports, but with no success.
One of the letters dated March 15 2023 and titled; Report on the use of campaign funding reads: “Section 72 (5c) of the National Assembly Electoral Act, states that political party registered with the commission and have received funds shall provide the commission with financial statements and reports in the prescribed manner within a period of six months after declaration of the results of the elections.
“All political parties that contested and received campaign funding in the 2022 national assembly elections held on the 7th of October 2022 are reminded that the last day for reporting on the use of such funds received is the 14th of April 2023.
“And as such, all political parties that have not yet reported to the IEC as requested are expected to report before the last day of reporting as stipulated above.”
The letter also called on parties to deposit any unused funds into the IEC bank account by 31 May 2023.
Maqutu said after several failed reminders, he has instructed the commission’s attorney to institute legal action against the non-complying parties.
He revealed that the IEC allocates M3,36 million for parties represented in parliament every year. The political party with the highest number of seats in the national assembly elections; RFP with 57 seats was allocated M1,196 million, while the Basotho National Party, Popular Front for Democracy, Basotho Convenant Movement, National Independent Party, Mpulule Political Summit and Hope-Mphatlalatsane that secured one seat apiece each received M76, 470.
“This is a lot of money for a small country such as ours; that needs to be accounted for,” Maqutu said.
He also cited that the National Assembly Electoral Act which states that every party contesting for elections should declare any other donated funds exceeding M200, 000.
However, Maqutu said for the 2022 elections only the RFP declared such, although he was not sure if other parties had received sponsorship amounts less than that.
“Remember, funding is given to parties represented in the national assembly and the amount is divided according to the number of seats secured. It is therefore, shameful for political party leaders to fail to comply with the laws.
“It is even more shameful when law enforcers fail to abide by the laws. By the time they became parliamentarians, that on its own says they were ready to govern. The question is how do you do so when you fail to account for public funds? Maqutu quizzed.
“It should be understood that this non-compliance is not only by small parties but even larger parties who were represented in the 10th parliament. You should except summons, they are coming to you,” he warned.
Maqutu commended the Alliance for Democrats (AD), noting it is an exceptional party that has always been consistence in submitting its financial reports and statements in all the three categories of funds allocated, without being reminded.
He noted that parties’ failure to account for funds makes it difficult for the IEC to reconcile its own books.
The commission is mandated by the Electoral Elections Act and the Public Financial Management Act, 2011, to account for funds used. It is also expected to avail yearly reports to the office of the auditor general as well as the national assembly, through the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Maqutu also said that the IEC would not give any funds to parties for the local government elections scheduled for 29 September.
Commenting on the parties’ failure to account for the funds they received, political analyst Professor Motlamelle Kapa said the court route would be the best under the circumstances.
He pointed out that financial reporting was the backbone of every institution and it should not only be done by political parties.
“The idea of parties being given funds is to ensure that they sustain their operations and in a democratic country like Lesotho they are given that opportunity,” Professor Kapa told theReporter in an interview.
Contacted for comment, All Basotho Convention (ABC) secretary general, Lebohang Hlaele said his party had never failed to submit its financial reports.
However, he said they had submitted their report for the October 2022 elections but it was returned with some queries by the commission. The party was currently in the process of addressing these and would send the report back to the IEC.
Hlaele added that the ABC was still awaiting reports from 24 constituencies that have not yet submitted.
Twelve party agents were also not able to provide their reports and therefore there was a need for the party to approach their village chiefs to confirm their participation in the elections.
Hlaele further noted that in another incident, another 12 forms were rejected by the IEC because they were wrongly filled.
“We have just received the new forms from the commission so that we can fill them again,” he said.
Democratic Congress (DC) secretary general, Tšitso Cheba said the party had only submitted part of their report to the IEC.
The other was queried by the commission and returned for corrections.
“Part of the reports had to be returned back to us after IEC raised concerns that some signatures by our party agents were not clear and some receipts were not corresponding. “Yes, we still have to submit the whole report. We did not fail to account, but we had written the reports the way we understood they should be and submitted the statements and all supporting documents. However, some sections of the reports were sent back to us for corrections; we are still working on finalising them,” Cheba explained.
