…says the money was part of the M6 billion flagged in 2021 report
Moroke Sekoboto
MINISTER of Finance and Development Planning, Dr Retšelisitoe Matlanyane, has clarified that the government had not squandered the M3 billion flagged by Auditor General Mathabo Makenete in the 2023/24 audit report.
Instead, Dr Matlanyane said the M3 billion was the remaining balance from the M6.1 billion which was unaccounted for by the previous regime as reflected by the 2020/21 audit report.
Ms Makenete’s Report on the Government of Lesotho’s Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2024 was tabled before Parliament yesterday by Minister of Law and Justice, Richard Ramoeletsi, on behalf of Dr Matlanyane who was absent. It stated that M3.09 billion had not been accounted for in the 2023/24 fiscal year.
Dr Matlanyane told media on Friday that the current government had worked tirelessly to trace the money and had managed to locate the usage of M3 billion, with the M3.09 billion reflected in the recently released report still outstanding.
Speaking at the press conference on Friday Dr Matlanyane said the discrepancy was not a single-year mistake, but a multi-year backlog dating back to the 2018/2019 financial year.
Dr Matlanyane said since then, Office of the Accountant General had been working to trace these funds, systematically proving how money flowed out of the Consolidated Fund even though it was missing from the official books.
She stated that the recent data showed massive progress: in 2020/2021, M6.1 billion was unaccounted for; in 2022/2023, discrepancy reduced to M3.5 billion; in 2023/2024 it further reduced to M3.09 billion.
“The money was not necessarily stolen; rather, it left the government bank accounts without being properly recorded in the accounting system. The primary reasons for this multi-billion-maloti mismatch include: delayed national debt entries, missions and local council gaps, foreign exchange losses, inter-ministerial transactions, human errors, and fraudulent activities,” Dr Matlanyane said.
“Therefore, since 2020/21, the Accountant General has been working to obtain evidence to show and convince the auditor that money has flowed out of the consolidated fund, but is not reflected in the books as to how it was done. The 2023/2024 report shows that M3.09 billion remains to be explained. Some of the reasons why the money flowing out of the consolidated fund does not match the books are as follows:
She explained that debt payments were made directly through the Central Bank of Lesotho to avoid high penalties, but the corresponding entries in the government books faced severe delays. She stated that Lesotho embassies abroad and local municipal councils made direct bank payments that lacked matching paperwork in the central accounting books.
She added that fluctuations in international currency values affected transactions handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations.
Dr Matlanyane further added that funds transferred between different government ministries created tracking gaps.
Also, the mathematical and data-entry mistakes made by bank clerks or the government officials. She further highlighted that the actual instances of unauthorized or deceptive payments that bypassed standard accounting controls.
“National debt payments that were paid to the Central Bank, to avoid high costs. The adjustment to reflect these payments in the books took place after a long time. Local Councils and Lesotho Missions abroad that pay into the bank, but there are no records in the books.
“Errors that may be made in calculations by bank employees or government officials. Therefore, going back and searching for these payments takes time. But it seems that there is a pattern, as in this case the M3.1 billion has been clearly explained by the Accountant General,” Dr Matlanyane said.
She said that digging through years of historical bank statements and international transaction receipts was a slow, tedious process. However, treasury officials had assued her that there was no new unaccounted-for money entering the system.
“The remaining M3.09 billion is part of the old backlog. The Accountant General is continuing the reconciliation process, gathering standard audit evidence to clear the remaining balance and fix the underlying system gaps. The Accountant General is continuing to obtain all the evidence as to what happened to the remaining money (reconciliation). So, there is no new money that is still unknown as to how it worked,” she emphasised.