ARMED WITH EXCUSES: The shocking retreat from accountability within the Ministry of Defence
While our brave men and women in uniform stand guard at our borders to curb stock theft and risked their lives in the insurgent-ravaged jungles of Mozambique, a different kind of battle is being lost in the air-conditioned offices of Maseru.
It is a battle for the very soul of our national treasury, and according to the latest report from the Auditor-General, the Ministry of Defence is currently in a state of total administrative retreat.
The audit for the financial year ended 31 March 2024 does not just suggest incompetence; it paints a picture of a ministry that treats the Constitution of Lesotho as a mere suggestion and the public purse as a bottomless bunker for creative accounting.
When those entrusted with our national security cannot even account for a few hundred thousand maloti in furniture or the repair costs of crashed vehicles, we must ask ourselves: who is truly defending whom?
The Auditor-General has issued a stinging Adverse Opinion on the government’s consolidated financial statements, a declaration that the nation’s books are so fundamentally flawed they cannot be trusted. At the heart of this fiscal quagmire is a Ministry of Defence that seems to operate under its own set of rules, bypassed by the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) and shielded by a veil of “emergency” spending that the Auditor General has explicitly labelled as unconstitutional.
Let us begin with the most flagrant Section 113 of the Constitution, this fund is reserved strictly for “urgent and unforeseen” needs.
Yet, the Ministry of Defence saw fit to draw M18.84 million from this fund simply to pay the annual insurance premiums for the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) Airwing. Since when is an annual insurance premium “unforeseen”?