Mohloai Mpesi
LEADER of the opposition, Mathibeli Mokhothu, has asked Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to probe government’s utilisation of the Contingencies Fund, citing what he describes as persistent fiscal and constitutional breaches of its usage.
Mr Mokhothu, who also leads the Democratic Congress, wrote to the PAC this week requesting an inquiry into the use of the Contingencies Fund and an examination of compliance with the 20 percent ceiling provided for under Section 112 of the Constitution.
His request follows a separate letter he addressed to the Speaker of the National Assembly, in which he asked for the deferment of the 2026/2027 national budget to allow Parliament time to interrogate critical financial issues and for the Supreme Audit Institution to begin auditing the use of the Contingencies Fund.
Among the issues raised are a reported M3.46 billion excess expenditure in 2024/2025, contingency spending of M955 million in 2025/2026, and a further M1.015 billion excess in the same 2025/2026 financial year.
Mr Mokhothu argues that the Constitution requires all supplementary budgets to be approved by Parliament.
“When read cumulatively, these documents raise not isolated accounting discrepancies and legal irregularities, but reveal a recurring structural fiscal pattern characterised by post-facto regularisation of expenditure, systematic reliance on contingency financing, anticipatory budgeting failure, executive sequencing of expenditure prior to parliamentary authority, and progressive erosion of Parliament’s constitutional control over the Consolidated Fund,” he wrote.
He added that the scale, frequency and duplication of excess and contingency allocations elevated the matter beyond administrative non-compliance.
“It constitutes a constitutional governance breach requiring urgent parliamentary intervention,” the letter reads.
Mr Mokhothu warned that failure to address these trends risked fiscal indiscipline, erosion of parliamentary supremacy, weakened democratic accountability and worsened the already declining public confidence in state institutions.
“I urge the committee to act decisively in defence of Parliament’s power of the purse and in faithful discharge of its oversight mandate.”
In his letter, Mr Mokhothu asked the PAC to examine compliance with the one-fifth pre-approval limit and to summon relevant principal secretaries for questioning. He further urged the committee to direct the Supreme Audit Institution to conduct a special compliance audit, require written justification for foreseeable expenditures excluded from the main Appropriation Act, recommend tighter statutory criteria for the use of contingency funds, and table a formal report reaffirming Parliament’s supremacy over public finances.
He also expressed concern over what he described as misuse of the Contingencies Fund through advances that exceeded M531 million within months of an initial allocation of M955,684,354.
The expenditures cited include the Prime Minister’s annual leave travel to the Maldives, Public Service Day celebrations, commemorative events, agricultural inputs, credit guarantee facilities, routine diplomatic travel, vehicle procurement and the Deputy Prime Minister’s trip to Brazil.
“These are planned policy activities. They do not prima facie meet the constitutional threshold of urgency and unforeseeability. The Contingencies Fund appears to be operating as a shadow appropriation mechanism or a discretionary fund of some sort,” Mr Mokhothu said.
PAC chairperson, ‘Machabana Lemphane-Letsie, said the matter would be discussed in Parliament next week.
“This issue is going to be discussed by the House next week as per the Economic Cluster report by its chairperson. Waiting for the Auditor-General would cause unnecessary delay. It must be discussed now, when the Supplementary Appropriation Bill is presented,” she said.
Chairperson of the Economic Cluster, Sello Hakane, tabled the consolidated report of the Portfolio Committee on the Economic and Development Cluster on the Statement of Excess for the 2025/2026 financial year yesterday.
The report states that most items contained in the statement of excess expenditure were attributed to disaster management rather than contingency spending.
