Ezulwini – Public Accounts Committees (PACs) across the SADC region have been challenged to move away from reacting to financial scandals after they occur and instead strengthen systems that identify and prevent risks before public funds are lost.
SADCOPAC Secretary General and Eswatini Public Accounts Committee Chairperson, Deputy Speaker Madala Mhlanga, made the call on Monday, September 14, 2026, during the opening of the 18th Annual Conference and 22nd Annual General Meeting of the Southern Africa Organisation of Public Accounts Committees (SADCO-PAC) at Happy Valley Hotel.
Mhlanga said oversight could no longer wait for audit reports, scandals or financial losses before taking action, arguing that citizens wanted parliamentarians and other accountability institutions to identify risks early and protect public resources before it was too late.
He said this required an integrated accountability system in which PACs, Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs), law enforcement agencies, civil society and the media worked together rather than operating as isolated institutions.
The conference is being held under the theme, “Oversight into Action: Building an Integrated Accountability System for Anticipatory Governance and Systemic Resilience in the SADC Region.”
Mhlanga identified state-owned enterprises as one of the key areas requiring stronger oversight, warning that contingent liabilities, unreported guarantees and weak governance could expose countries to serious fiscal risks.
He called for PACs to ask tougher questions, SAIs to conduct deeper audits and investigative agencies to follow financial trails earlier, saying prevention should take precedence over government bailouts.
He also called for oversight institutions to be equipped to deal with illicit financial flows in an increasingly digital economy.
According to Mhlanga, financial crimes have become digital, borderless and instantaneous, while laws, skills and regional cooperation have not kept pace.
He said SADC countries needed to invest in digital forensics, data analytics and cross-border memoranda of understanding to ensure that oversight institutions did not rely on outdated methods to investigate modern financial crimes.
Mhlanga further placed climate finance among the areas requiring stronger accountability, saying large-scale investments in climate resilience could become vulnerable to abuse if there was inadequate verification of how funds were used and whether projects delivered results.
He called for SAIs to audit the impact of climate-finance projects, investigators to trace funds and civil society organisations to verify results on the ground.
The Deputy Speaker also raised concerns about governments increasingly using digital systems for procurement, service delivery and social grants.
He questioned who would audit algorithms and verify the data used by such systems, warning that while digitisation could improve transparency, it could also conceal bias and fraud on a large scale.
Mhlanga said the region needed a new accountability partnership involving SAIs, civil society and journalists to ensure that digital government systems remained subject to scrutiny.
He also called for stronger accountability during disasters, noting that emergencies often resulted in rules being relaxed while public money moved quickly.
He proposed the development of an accountability playbook incorporating pre-approved transparency measures, real-time tracking of expenditure and post-crisis audits.
Meanwhile, Senate President Sen. Lindiwe Dlamini said public accountability was essential to strengthening public trust and ensuring that government spending served the national interest.
Dlamini, who officially opened the conference, said PAC members faced a demanding responsibility as they scrutinised financial statements, audit reports and government expenditure.
She said oversight should go beyond checking whether government had complied with procedures and instead examine whether public spending had actually improved citizens’ lives.
Dlamini cited a situation where a community clinic could be completed within budget and according to procurement requirements but remain unusable because of problems such as staffing or accessibility.
She said PACs should therefore use physical site visits and community engagement to establish whether projects were delivering meaningful benefits to citizens.
Dlamini also highlighted disaster oversight, saying emergency situations should not be used by vendors or officials as opportunities to bypass procurement requirements or inflate costs.
She praised SADCO-PAC for its capacity-building initiatives aimed at strengthening the technical skills of PAC members and officials supporting parliamentary oversight.
The conference brings together Public Accounts Committees from SADC countries and other regional and international accountability bodies for deliberations on public financial management, oversight and governance.
Mhlanga said the conference should ultimately be judged by the action it generated after delegates returned to their respective countries.
“Let us leave here with commitments, not just conclusions,” he said, calling for systems that anticipate risks, withstand crises and deliver value to citizens.
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