The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has demanded from authorities in parastatals to explain when and how dividends to government are due. According to the PAC, it has come to its members’ attention that those who are appointed to the board of directors to represent the government take too long as members and get exorbitant benefits which could be a cause why in some parastatals the government fails to earn dividends.
business
Jan. 25, 2019
2 min read
PAC demands government dues in parastatals
Parastatals
During the PAC session on Monday this week, the chairperson, MP Selibe Mochoboroane, tabled the Auditor General’s (AG) report which stated that dividends from the parastatals under Ministry of Finance amount to M35 207000 and this was said to be due to the fact that there is M17 500 000 which was not a dividend but a loan paid from Econet-Telecom Lesotho. The report also stated that the Central Bank (CBL) transferred M53 952 000 to the government revenue department but it was not captured bringing the amount of collected revenue in 2013/2014 to M71 682 700 against the budget of over M148 million.
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The Principal Secretary for finance, Motena Tsolo told the committee that there were some parastatals which are not expected to pay dividends to the government and those are the likes of LNDC, Water and Sewerage Company (WASCO) and the Lesotho Electricity Corporation (LEC) but as for others, they are expected to pay their dues consistently. She said Letseng Diamonds, Standard Lesotho Bank, AON Lesotho and Maluti Mountain Brewery have been paying dividends while Econet-Telecom and the Sun International have not been paying their due dividends for the past 10 years claiming not to be making any profits.
“It was only last financial year that it paid M7 million. But in most cases the observation is that the shareholders’ agreements have contributed to the non-payment of dividends and therefore have to be reviewed,” the process which she said was already underway.
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