$360m missing govt funds: Swazi workers threaten ‘national shutdown’

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$360m missing govt funds: Swazi workers threaten ‘national shutdown’

3:45 CAT | 24 Nov 2016

Swaziland’s largest workers’ federation has reportedly demanded a thorough investigation into alleged missing government funds from the country’s treasury department.

According to Voice of America, the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) threatened to embark on a nationwide industrial action if the country’s prime minister Barnabas Dlamini failed to institute an independent investigation over the missing funds.

An independent forensic audit of the accountant general’s office conducted by Kobla Quashie Consultants reportedly revealed that the government treasury department bank accounts had a $360m shortfall.

It remained unclear whether the funds disappeared due to corruption, maladministration or embezzlement.

TUCOSWA’s secretary general Vincent Ncongwane, was quoted as saying that the union federation was going to meet with its members to plan a “national shutdown”.

“We want that investigation so that the veracity of that would be determined… if indeed this money is missing, then we are saying that heads would have to roll …,” Ncongwane was quoted as saying.

The southern African country was placed in position 29 in the 2016 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) – with an average score of 49.7 out of 100.

The IIAG is an annual statistical assessment of the quality of governance in every African country.

Reports in July said that at least three of King Mswati III wives spent at least R14m during a holiday in Orlando, Florida in the United States.

The cost of the holiday was allegedly equivalent to the drought relief that the US was at the time providing to the drought-stricken country.

Source: News 24