PAC fumes over M152 million contingencies fund spending 

Mohloai Mpesi 

THE Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has chastised the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning over its use of the Contingencies Fund to finance what the Auditor-General says were non-emergency expenditures amounting to more than M152 million. 

The ministry appeared before the Committee this week to answer issues raised in the Auditor-General’s reports for the 2023 and 2024 financial years. 

Led by chairperson, ‘Machabana Lemphane-Letsie, the Committee grilled Budget Controller, Maleshoane Lekomola-Denziger, over advances drawn from the Contingencies Fund under the guise of emergencies. 

Ms Lemphane-Letsie said Auditor-General ‘Mathabo Makenete found in her report for the year ended 31 March 2024 that M152.43 million had been allocated for expenditure that was neither urgent nor unforeseen, contrary to constitutional requirements. 

“The Auditor-General’s query is that M152 million was allocated for expenditure that was neither urgent nor unforeseen, yet in 2023 this was not flagged as a matter of emphasis. 

“These allocations breached Section 113 of the Constitution,” Ms Lemphane-Letsie said. 

However, the Auditor-General’s report cites Section 133 of the Constitution, stating that M152.43 million was advanced to six spending units for expenditure that was neither urgent nor unforeseen, in violation of that provision. The report also found that M404.78 million in contingency advances remained unregularised because the Supplementary Appropriation Bill for the 2023/24 financial year had not yet been approved by Parliament at the time of the audit. 

The Constitution provides that money from the Contingencies Fund may only be used to meet urgent and unforeseen expenditure that cannot be financed through existing budget allocations. Any advance must subsequently be regularised through a supplementary appropriation approved by Parliament. The Public Financial Management and Accountability Act (PFMA) similarly requires accounting officers to ensure public funds are used only for approved purposes. 

Among the transactions flagged by the Auditor-General was an allocation of M114.7 million to the Ministry of Natural Resources on 27 September 2023 for refurbishment and maintenance of the ‘Muela Hydropower Plant. 

The Ministry of Defence and National Security received M18.8 million on 26 July 2023 to pay the annual insurance premium for the Lesotho Defence Force Air Wing, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations was allocated M1.1 million to finance Lesotho’s participation in the 78th United Nations General Assembly. 

Finance Principal Secretary, Nthoateng Lebona, defended the allocations, arguing they were lawful because no budget had been set aside for the expenditure. 

“These were urgent matters and there was no money allocated for them in the budget. So they used the provisions in the Constitution, as well as the PFMA, to allocate funds so the issues could be resolved quickly,” Ms Lebona said. 

Ms Lemphane-Letsie challenged the ministry to demonstrate that the expenditure genuinely met the constitutional test of being both urgent and unforeseen, noting that the Auditor-General had already outlined what qualifies for contingencies funding. 

The Committee also revisited similar findings from the 2023 audit report. One case involved a M10.1 million allocation to the Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services, requested on 30 May 2022 and approved on 14 June 2022, to install a recording system at the Tšifa-li-Mali High Court, purchase vehicles and laptops for newly appointed judges, maintain vehicles and re-roof court offices. 

Asked why such expenditure had been financed through the Contingencies Fund, Ms Lekomola-Denziger said the money had been allocated to the Judiciary rather than the ministry itself to equip newly appointed judges after the court became operational. 

She said officials concluded at the time that the expenditure was urgent because judges had already been recruited without a budget for the necessary resources. 

Ms Lemphane-Letsie dismissed that explanation. 

“These issues were handled unlawfully because there was no emergency. The law says urgent and unforeseen, which together render it an emergency. Urgent without unforeseen is not an emergency. 

“Was it unforeseen that opening a High Court at Tšifa-li-Mali would require a recording system? Why was the court opened before the logistics were finalised? That is something you plan for; it is not urgent and unforeseen,” she said. 

Ms Lekomola-Denziger maintained that preparations for the court’s opening had been progressing as planned but that delays in recruiting judges meant the resources had to be provided after their appointments. 

“So that justice is not delayed,” she said. 

Ms Lebona supported that explanation, insisting the circumstances had been unforeseen. 

Ms Lemphane-Letsie remained unconvinced, asking whether the recording system had been “waiting for the employment process to be completed”. 

PAC member, Dr Tšeliso Moroke, also questioned the ministry’s stance, asking whether officials found it difficult to simply admit that the law had been breached. 

The Committee also examined other allocations questioned by the Auditor-General, including M3.9 million granted to the Ministry of Defence and National Security for aviation insurance, M22.9 million allocated to the Ministry of Public Service for payroll system consultancy, performance-related pay project services and other consultancy fees, and M62 million advanced to the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology to renew an expired Microsoft Ireland software licence and complete refurbishment of two government data centres. 

Another PAC member, ‘Maboiketlo Maliehe, accused the ministry of repeatedly violating the law by treating the Contingencies Fund as an ordinary source of financing. 

“You have breached the law by putting your hands into the contingencies fund and continuing as if the fund is not protected by the law,” Ms Maliehe said. 

The PAC inquiry forms part of Parliament’s wider scrutiny of the Contingencies Fund amid growing concerns that the government has increasingly bypassed normal budgetary processes to finance expenditure, including foreign travel, without prior parliamentary approval. 

Among the questionable uses of the Contingencies Fund was Deputy Prime Minister Nthomeng Majara’s trip to the 30th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30), held in Belém, Brazil, from 10 to 21 November 2025. More than M1 million was advanced from the fund to finance the trip, during which Ms Majara represented Prime Minister Sam Matekane. 

Opposition leader, Mathibeli Mokhothu, has since accused the government of misusing the Contingencies Fund to bankroll international travel and petitioned the PAC to investigate its use more broadly. 

The Committee is expected to continue examining the Auditor-General’s findings in the coming weeks. 

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