By Seleoe Nonyane
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC)has advised the Lesotho Electricity Company(LEC) board of directors to take measures to purge temporary workers who have been on its payroll from as far back as 2018.
This after the PAC learned that the power utility was losing a lot of money paying an undisclosed number of temporary workers with no indication of a commitment to engage on a permanent basis.
LEC board member, ‘Masophia Lesaoana told the committee recently that they had hired the temporary employees to investigate the company’s misfiling which dates back to 2010 and had cost it millions of Maloti.
The LEC board appeared before the PAC to respond to queries raised in the Auditor General’s report for the period between March 31, 2017 and March 31, 2020.
The board was also responding to issues that were raised by the LEC management before the PAC in October this year, which included employees conniving with clients to fleece LEC of money.
Lesaoana revealed that in 2018 LEC internal auditstaff were engaged to do a recall of its books from 2010 and in 2021 the company realised it had underrated the task. That was why LEC hired temporary staff on six-month contracts which were extended by a year when they uncovered an ever-increasing number of cases of misfiling.
“The investigations have advanced so much thatwe have now entered the current year. Indeed, the work was initially expected to have been completed in 2022.
“So, we are now expecting this audit to be completed by March 2024. The six-month contracts had a clear scope and what should be achieved.
“However, new and unexpected developments keep coming up along the way, necessitating the extension of the contracts. For instance, when weanticipated a problem involving M5 million, investigations revealed the problem actually involved a larger amount of money,” she indicated.
In response, PAC chairperson ‘Machabana Lemphane-Letsie said her concern was that these temporary employees could be deliberately prolonging the process to continue milking LEC.
“It is as though the company has created permanent jobs for the temporary staff to stay in the company forever. This is one of the problemsthat cost LEC millions. The M34 million that was stolen from LEC is just a tip of the iceberg and I believe more will be discovered.
“LEC has not made any effort to recover the money that its former employees stole. Imagine someone resigning and receiving their terminal benefits when theft was committed.
“From 2018 the LEC board was already aware of the theft and yet six years down the line nothing has been done to those who have committed this misconduct. The company has internal audit staff who are more experienced and skilled than the temporary employees. Why can’t these internal audit people carry out the investigations themselves?” Lemphane-Letsie asked.
