Lobamba – The Taxpayer has paid E4 239 239.00 settling court orders for court cases lost by the Ministry of Education and Training.
These figures were revealed by ministry officials during its appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday.
The matter was raised by the Auditor General, Timothy Matsebula who informed the PAC that the Ministry of Education and Training had paid this amount in respect of a “Education Advance” but it was not specified what the fees were for.
Explaining, the Ministry of Education and Training Principal Secretary (PS) Bheki Gama, through the Principal Human Resources Office, Sibusiso Ndzinisa, disclosed that the amount was paid in respect of court cases that were lost by the ministry.
Members of the PAC were shocked at the amount and demanded a breakdown of the cases. The ministry revealed that the Legal Advisor, Lucky Vilakati, who had all the information had not yet arrived. The matter was deferred while the ministry officials were instructed to fetch Vilakati from wherever he was to answer their questions.
On his arrival, Vilakati disclosed that the amount was three-fold. He said one of the cases involved one of a teacher who damaged a pupil’s eye while imposing corporal punishment on the child. He said the child’s parents sued the government. He disclosed that the Ministry was found vicariously liable by the High Court because the teacher was acting within scope of his employment.
He said the second type of cases involved unfulfilled contracts while the third one was related to issues of negligence by the ministry staff.
The Ministry’s Financial Controller informed the PAC that the ministry did not have a budget to pay for these court cases but relied on savings made at the end of each financial year.
Ndzinisa disclosed that the Ministry is in the process of recovering the funds from the different officers who were involved in the negligence resulting in the government losing this amount.
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