By Neo Kolane
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) wants the ministry of home affairs to clarify issues surrounding the destruction of more than 15,000 passports in 2022, which led to the government losing M3.6 million.
The committee says it also wants the principal secretary (PS), ‘Mamphaka Mabesa, who is the ministry’s chief accounting officer (CAO), to investigate what transpired and take stern corrective measures.
According to the latest report by the Auditor General, ‘Mathabo Makenete, for the year ending March 31, 2022, tabled in parliament two weeks ago, the government lost more than M3.5 million after destroying over 15,000 damaged passports.
Makenete attributed this to lack of skills transfer due to the absence of collaboration between the ministry’s IT personnel and PANGEA, an Israeli company engaged to maintain the passport production system.
She also noted that skills transfer was limited, and there was poor maintenance of the systems leading to dysfunctional printers and computers.
Makenete further discovered lack of security arrangements, citing that passports were being distributed from production to various destinations in unsealed boxes and by a passport officer not accompanied by any security personnel. This was in breach of Section 5 (h) of the Public Financial Management and Accountability Act (PFMA).
“Over 15,000 passports became unusable due to a variety of reasons, including folded paper, chip error, and data mismatches, leading to them being disposed of,” the report pointed out.
It added that the loss was not reported to the PS/CAO by the Public Officer or the Finance Officer, in violation of Section 89 (1) of the Treasury Regulations, 2014.
Weighing in, the chairperson of the PAC, ‘Machabana Lemphane-Letsie, told theReporter this week that the committee would get to the bottom of the matter.
Without mincing words, Lemphane-Letsie said the CAO needs to take action against the public officer or the finance officer who did not report the issue to her.
“We expect that when the PS comes before the PAC, she should have already taken action first and not be told by the PAC what to do.
“The PAC will then make recommendations to parliament,” Lemphane-Letsie said.
She noted that the auditor general had already raised her concerns with Mabesa before the release of the report.
“The auditor general held a meeting with the CAO about the matter before the report was published, so she knew about it,” Lemphane-Letsie said, adding her committee was now waiting to see how the CAO fixed the matter.
She further indicated that 15,000 passports is a huge number and she suspects that the bungling by government officials did not occur during the financial year under review, but rather, they were hiding the matter.
Lemphane-Letsie’s concerns regarding the processing of passports – from handling applications to being lost without being properly recorded – highlights systemic flaws that need to be urgently addressed.
“I suspect that it is something that has been happening but was not recorded,” she said.
She expressed concern that government ministries have a tendency of not reporting losses, emphasizing that it is crucial for them to promptly address any financial irregularities and take appropriate measures to prevent recurrence.
Anti-graft body, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offices (DCEO) says it has not yet received the auditor general’s report on the matter.
“We can only move in after going through it and we’re convinced that there is corruption involved,” DCEO public relations officer ‘Matlhokomelo Senoko told this publication yesterday in a brief telephone interview.
The ministry of home affairs, through the department of passport services, is responsible for issuing travel documents in Lesotho.
The government entered into a maintenance agreement with PANGEA Ngu (Ltd) which entailed conditions such as transfer of information technology (IT) skills. Section 3 of the agreement stipulated that the company would collaborate with government personnel for the duration of the deal.
In her report, Makenete recommended that the ministry places IT personnel at the passport production centre.
She recommended that PANGEA facilitates training of the ministry’s IT personnel to support the system.
She further urged the ministry’s CAO to develop security guidelines for the delivery of passports from production to distribution sites
“And lastly, the ministry complies with the loss report per regulations,” she noted.
For his part, the director passport services, Mpiko Rafono, indicated that they will respond to the issues raised in the auditor general’s report once they officially receive it through proper channels.
Rafono emphasized the importance of following established processes for addressing such reports, which typically involve them being taken to the ministry for review and response.
“We will address the matter in parliament,” he told theReporter in an interview on Wednesday this week.
He added: “We’re waiting to get the report through official means, not anything unofficial or via the media.”
Home affairs minister Lebona Lephama two months ago told the parliamentary portfolio committee on law and public safety that the major problem prolonging issuance of passports was the failure to deliver on the part of the contracted company, Pangea IT.
He said the firm acts as a middle man between the government of Lesotho and HID Global, the South African company that designs and manufactures passports.
He also revealed that after Pangea’s failure to deliver, the government started working directly with the supplier (HID), who initially did not agree with the country’s form of payment.
The ministry says the challenge affected the issuance of IDs since the country does not have cards to print on.
“After agreeing with Pangea that we get direct supply from HID, we could not agree on the form of payment as the supplier demanded cash before delivery.
“On the other hand, the government allows that payments be made as and only when the goods or services are received. The government issues a letter of credit to the supplier as surety that payment will be made.
“However, we finally managed to convince HID to work with us on the same payment agreement and the first batch of their delivery of 10849 passports was on January, 2023,” Lephema said.
The PS in the same ministry told the committee that although the 24/25 budget allocation will only allow them to procure 60 000 passports the actual number needed is 150 000. She said they are pinning their hope on the contingency.
