Bereng Mpaki
Communications minister Thesele ‘Maseribane has refuted claims that the national emergency command centre (NECC) is misusing public funds meant to fight the virus.
The NECC is comprised of various government ministries and departments and is charged with spearheading the fight against the deadly coronavirus (Covid-19).
However, it has already been rocked by allegations of corruption and misappropriation of funds. This after a document was leaked purporting to detail how the M698 million budgeted for fighting Covid-19 would be spent. The document shows money meant to fight the virus being budgeted for expensive lunches and teas for 70 people seconded to work at the NECC for six months.
According to the leaked budget, an amount of M6, 3 million would be spent for lunches and dinners for the 70 bureaucrats who will each get M500 per day. The officials would also get paid M120 each for morning tea at a total cost of M1, 512 million for the six month duration.
The document also reveals corrupt procurement plans with a non-contact thermometer budgeted for M500 000 when its actual price is far less than that. The costs of such thermometers range from M1000 to M7000 at most.
One of the biggest costs is for Wifi for the 10 District emergency command centres estimated to gobble M7, 560 million for six months while a geographical information mapping system has an estimated budget of M1 835 860
Minister Maseribane, who is also the NECC chairman, convened a media briefing at the ‘Manthabiseng Convention Centre to rebut the allegations of corruption on Friday.
This was after the leaked budget document had caused an outcry on social media as Basotho expressed outrage over the alleged abuse.
The minister said the leaked document showed the initial estimates of the costs the centre expected to incur. However, these had been eventually revised downwards.
Chief ‘Maseribane did not explain why the costs of original line items for things like lunches and dinners were so high.
He assured the public that everyone had a right to inquire about the usage of funds budgeted for Covid-19.
“The budget estimates being circulated on social media are misleading the public as they give an incomplete picture,” he said.
Speaking at the same event, one of the coordinators at the NECC, Matete ‘Nena, said the accusations being made against personnel working at the command centre were unfair as they were risking their lives to serve the country.
“The personnel here have sacrificed their lives when everyone is at home hiding from the virus. I therefore call on the public to look at the personnel here in that light.
“Our families are afraid that we may infect them. It is therefore wrong to tarnish the images of people who have sacrificed their lives to help the country,” Mr ‘Nene said.
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