3% Salary Bump For LEC Staff

(MENAFN- The Post) MASERU – THE Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) has announced a three percent salary increase for employees at a time when the parastatal is under intense scrutiny for financial misappropriation.

The salary increment, confirmed through a Monday Savingram from the acting managing director Ntsie Maphathe, comes amid an ongoing parliamentary probe into the shenanigans at the LEC.

A parliamentary portfolio committee has accused senior LEC management of manipulating internal policies to increase their own acting allowances at a time when the parastatal is going through a rough patch.

Specifically, the LEC management allegedly chose to apply a 2015 acting policy, which entitles acting officials to receive the full difference between their substantive salaries and those of the positions they are acting in.

The policy is seen to benefit top management significantly more than the 2021 acting policy, which caps acting allowances at 10 percent of the acting position's salary.

Despite the controversy, the LEC boss, Maphathe, has moved ahead with a salary adjustment for general staff.

The Savingram says“the approved 3% increase has been distributed across different grades using a staggered approach”.

“This method was adopted temporarily to manage the prevailing gaps amongst salary grades and to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of the adjustment rate,” the Savingram said.

Workers have been advised to reach out to their supervisors or the human resources office for more detailed information regarding the changes.

“Management wishes to thank all staff for the patience exercised during the negotiation process,” the Savingram concludes.

The timing of the announcement has raised eyebrows, with critics questioning whether the increment is meant to soften internal dissent or distract from the allegations of executive-level financial irregularities currently under parliamentary investigation.

The LEC management has come under intense scrutiny from the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) over procurement irregularities, including buying stock materials without valid contracts in violation of company policy.

The PAC on Monday uncovered that since April 1, 2023 the LEC has been sourcing equipment from questionable suppliers who are not listed in the company's official supplier database.

This includes a controversial purchase of a 4-core cable from HDM Catering Company, which allegedly bypassed standard procurement procedures.

The Acting Chief Finance Officer, Lintle Thamae, stunned the PAC by disclosing that millions of maloti in transactions were executed using the Request for Quotations (RFQs) and Purchase Orders (POs), a practice that the committee flagged as irregular and unlawful.

The Matala MP, Dr Tšeliso Moroke, grilled the LEC Procurement Manager, Peo Mputsoe, warning that the company's behaviour might amount to criminal activity.

“You have been violating the law by operating without contracts,” Dr Moroke said sternly.

In response, Mputsoe claimed that the last annual stock material contracts were signed on February 10, 2023.
Further raising eyebrows, the Acting Internal Auditor, Sehere Rakeketsi, admitted that his office does not retain procurement records.

“We only request them when we are conducting an audit,” Rakeketsi said.

The suspended Internal Auditor, Thato Matsoso, added that their office is“not officially designated as a custodian of procurement documents”.

The PAC chairperson, 'Machabana Lemphane-Letsie, expressed concern over the lack of internal controls.

“The internal audit office should ensure that procurement controls are in place,” Lemphane-Letsie said.

“You should quote for us the law that allows large transactions to be done using purchase orders,” she said.

“It is incorrect and illegal.”

Lemphane-Letsie criticised what she described as“a culture of impunity within the procurement office”, suggesting that officers were manipulating procedures for their convenience.

“It is to Mr Mputsoe department's convenience. He seems to be running the LEC like a one-man show. It is frightening.”

When pressed further, the acting financial officer Thamae admitted that the company has continued using the Request for Quotations even after the expiry of official contracts.

“Since the last contracts expired,” Thamae said,“we've been using Requests for Quotations.”

She acknowledged that under the LEC policy, any procurement above M100 000 should be conducted through open tendering.

A suspended procurement officer, Mosae Mosae, highlighted what he called systemic issues, stating that much of the LEC's procurement work is handled by unqualified clerks.

“If you look at the clerks' academic background and expertise, you will see they are simply placed there,” Mosae said.

“Some can't even draft a tender document or evaluation report,” he said.

Nkheli Liphoto

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