Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on the Social Cluster has ordered five government ministries and agencies to urgently resolve issues of unpaid wages, contractor debt, village health worker (VHW) salaries, and student sponsorship failures.
The call comes after the committee heard five petitions, between May and September 2025, over unpaid monies.
The committee submitted its report to the National Assembly this week, with deadlines for ministries to report back and flagged a pattern of payments only being made after parliamentary intervention.
The committee directed the Ministry of Education and Training and the Teaching Service Department to ensure reception teachers are paid on time and to urgently clear outstanding arrears.
It also ordered the ministry to investigate cases of unfair dismissals and report back, create a mechanism for grants to long-serving teachers who have worked over 10 years, review employment contracts to close loopholes that expose teachers to unfair dismissals, and review wages to bring them in line with market rates.
According to the committee, reception teachers said the payments remain inconsistent and some arrears are still outstanding despite previous interventions.
The Ministry of Education and Training blamed April delays on technical problems and warned that a similar delay was expected at the end of May.
It said the official pay date for reception teachers is the 25th of every month and claimed only seven teachers were still unpaid.
On grants, the ministry said they are only for permanent employees and that contracted reception teachers must go through the same employment process as other qualified teachers to benefit.
The ministry noted that it was not aware of cases of dismissals but pledged to investigate if provided with a list of the affected teachers and schools.
On the case of Lilema Construction (PTY) Ltd, the committee ordered the Ministries of Health and Public Works to ensure the company is urgently paid for demolition work at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital. Both ministries must report progress to the committee.
Lilema said it was hired in 2020 under a M4.99m joint venture to demolish the hospital but has not been paid in full. The company noted that it did not know the exact outstanding amount due to a missing business partner. The Ministry of Health admitted an outstanding payment exists and estimated it at M540,530.00, the report revealed.
It further indicated that the Ministry of Finance has the authority to pay but is waiting for a payment certificate from the Ministry of Public Works.
The committee also pointed out that ministries and departments often only pay suppliers on time after suppliers seek parliamentary intervention, which delays service delivery and erodes confidence in government procurement processes.
The National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) was instructed to report progress by 14 May 2025 on six National University of Lesotho (NUL) graduates whose certificates were withheld over outstanding payments. It was also directed to report and ensure the certificates are released.
NMDS admitted the six were mistakenly left out during payment processes, adding more graduates were also affected.
The committee said the Ministry of Education and Training should engage the Ministry of Finance to find a solution for students who completed the Bsc bridging programme but could not proceed due to NMDS sponsorship failure.
It also ordered the ministry to share resolutions from its meeting with NUL and NMDS.
The committee said parents said NUL admitted students into the bridging programme without informing them that NMDS sponsorship quotas would close before they finished. NMDS advised parents to sponsor the first year so sponsorship could continue in the second year, but some students were left stranded and unable to continue their studies.
On village health workers, the committee ordered the Ministry of Health to urgently follow up on salary issues and report back by 29 May 2025.
The ministry must separate government such workers from CHAL’s and send the lists to the Ministry of Public Service for processing, the report said.
The committee said government wages should be considered the best model for payment and advised LEWA to return to the Labour Court for intervention.
LEWA said the court ruled that VHWs are employees entitled to minimum wages of M2,448.00 for over 12 months’ service and M2,242.00 for less, but the Ministry of Health had not complied.
The ministry said it submitted lists to the Ministry of Public Service but positions have not been created, and it has requested M32m from Finance to cover payments not budgeted for.
It added that some VHWs receive stipends from the Global Fund, but this is not a sustainable solution.
The committee found that reception teachers’ contracts have loopholes that expose them to unfair dismissals and that NUL did not fully inform all parties involved in bridging programmes before admissions.
It also observed that the delay in payments to Lilema Construction and reception teachers reflected a wider problem of poor financial management and delayed budget disbursements across ministries.
It further urged ministries to strengthen internal controls and ensure timely processing of payments to avoid recurring petitions.
The report and its recommendations were adopted by the committee and submitted to the National Assembly for adoption.
