Grilled Acting PS Quits

(MENAFN- The Post) THE acting principal secretary for the Prime Minister's Office, 'Mapeo Matlanyane, who was last week subjected to fierce grilling over how the ministry misused Covid-19 funds, has resigned.

Matlanyane appeared before parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to answer charges of plunder of funds allocated to the Disaster Management Authority (DMA) to fight Covid-19 in 2020.

The DMA, through which the National Emergency Command Centre (NECC) and its successor the National Covid-19 Secretariat (NACOSEC) were set up, falls under the Prime Minister's Office.

On Monday the PAC was forced to postpone its sitting to next week after Matlanyane told its chairperson, 'Machabana Lemphane-Letsie, that she had resigned from her acting position.

Her decision to suddenly resign from her position has now delayed the interviews.
Matlanyane told thepost last night that she had resigned after she was put under pressure to respond to issues she knew nothing about.

“I was not there when these things happened and I could not be expected to have the answers,” Matlanyane said.

“Yes, this is the reason why I resigned. I was the acting principal secretary and I have resigned.”

But Lemphane-Letsie insisted last night that Matlanyane had all the powers to call her support staff to help her with answers but she had decided not to.

“I think she decided to resign because she had been given a job too high for her,” Lemphane-Letsie said.

“A chief accounting officer is supposed to answer questions and she had to. The staff was at her disposal to use but she opted to quit,” she said.

The spokesman for the Cabinet, Refiloe Kepa, told thepost that Matlanyane has now been replaced by the Defence Principal Secretary 'Mabataung Khalane.
The PAC clerk, Thabo Matela, said the proceedings were supposed to have commenced on Monday.

“But, we had to stop since the chief accounting officer had resigned from the job,” Matela said.

“We are expecting to start the proceedings again next week Monday,” he said.

Matlanyane was last week subjected to fierce grilling by committee members who demanded answers on how her ministry had used Covid-19 funds.
She told the committee members that she could not answer some of the questions because she was not yet in office, a response that infuriated the MPs.

They insisted that as the acting PS, Matlanyane should be in a position to explain what had happened.
During the last committee sitting, Matlanyane told the committee that some of the office documents regarding Covid-19 were seized by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO).

“I am asking if next week we will be helped with some documents that the DCEO has seized,” Matlanyane pleaded with the MPs.

However, Lemphane-Letsie lashed out at her saying she did not have a list of such documents.

“I told you to do a list, the DCEO was willing to assist (provide some) documents, I have not seen any list from you,” Lemphane-Letsie said.

Again Matlanyane argued that she had provided a list of documents to the committee but again the MPs insisted that the list she had sent was not complete.

“I told you to (compile) all the lists, we cannot play games here,” she said.

“We will not entertain any games as the Public Accounts Committee.”

Another PAC member, 'Mamarame Matela, said Matlanyane was receiving an acting allowance therefore she must be accountable for what her office did.
Lemphane-Letsie asked Matlanyane if she had taken time to go through the 2020 Auditor General's report and she responded that she did.

When the committee insisted in asking her if indeed she had gone through the document Matlanyane then told the committee that she had not.
Her response led to Lemphane-Letsie telling her that she should“stop telling us lies as the committee”.

She made it clear to Matlanyane that the committee had“not assembled to play games but to interrogate the issues that affect the nation's funds”.
Matela told Matlanyane that she was“a liar who came to the committee to mislead and tell lies”.

“You told us that you know that report, but later told us that you did not read it, you must tell the truth,” Matela said.

Nkheli Liphoto

MENAFN10102023000229011070ID1107221127