PARLIAMENT’s Social Cluster Portfolio Committee has recently earned praises for being one of the most effective and transparent parliamentary committees. It has done a tremendous job in keeping the ministries that it oversees fully accountable.
The committee chaired by Mokhethoaneng constituency legislator, Mokhothu Makhalanyane, recently intervened and helped end a three-week strike by health workers in the Mokhotlong, Qacha’s Nek and Thaba-Tseka districts.
The committee has also directed the Ministry of Natural Resources to address concerns of the Kolo community aggrieved by the operations of a mining company there, and is currently working on resolving challenges borne of the eviction of street vendors from most parts of the Maseru CBD.
Considering inroads the committee is making, Lesotho Times (LT) reporter, Mathatisi Sebusi, had a brief one-on-one with Mr Makhalanyane, to learn more about the committee’s operations and achievements thereof, with primary focus on the health sector. Cabinet ministers and senior civil servants normally frown upon committees led by effective and probing MPs like Mr Makhalanyane. They would rather seek to hide their skulduggery. Mr Makhalanyane says inexperienced ministers and those public servants with something to hide are normally the problem. But experienced ministers like Health Minister, Selibe Mochoboroane, who have been in parliament for long and fully understand its processes, are easier to work with and fully cooperate with the committee.
Excerpts:
LT: What is the mandate of the Social Cluster Portfolio Committee, and can you say you are effectively discharging its mandate?
Makhalanyane: Our mandate is to allocate funds to three ministries under our watch. These are the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Training as well as Ministry of Social Development, Gender and Youth. We play our oversight role of ensuring that they operate as per their policies, providing services to the people as expected of them.
Our mandate is about oversight and accountability which include monitoring, supervision, investigation and even recommending restructuring if there is a need.
LT: Are recommendations by the committee binding?
Makhalanyane: The committee can make recommendations and resolutions and present them before the National Assembly. When the House adopts reports and recommendations by the social cluster committee, then they become binding.
LT: How is the relationship between the committee and the ministries it oversees? Would you say the ministries are cooperative, giving the committee the respect and appreciation it deserves?
Makhalanyane: It depends on the experience of the cabinet ministers we work with. Ministers who were previously ordinary members of parliament, or members and chairpersons of parliamentary portfolio committees, are easy to work with. They understand what is expected of them and work very well with us. They are cooperative and respect the committee.
An example is the Ministry of Health. I believe you have seen that we feature a lot in that ministry because Selibe Mochoboroane was once a chairperson of a parliamentary portfolio committee, and a member of parliament before he was a minister. He understands fully how the committee works and appreciates powers of the National Assembly….
Public servants who have long been working for the government, also have immense respect for committees and are more cooporative compared to their counterparts who have just joined the government.
Again, ministers who have not been MPs before and have not been members of any committee, are problematic and hardly cooperate. They do not understand what is expected of them and the importance of working well with portfolio committees.
LT: What have been your committee’s highlights, since it came into being following the birth of the 11th Parliament in October 2022, with particular focus on the Ministry of Health?
Makhalanyane: The committee has achieved a lot since it came into being. Staff at the Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital were not getting paid on time and doctors were owed call duty allowances which dated back to 2018. We resolved the problem. The staff is now paid on time and most doctors have received their outstanding call duty allowances.
The National Health Training Centre (NHTC) did not meet accreditation requirements due to lack of resources, which they had been requesting for years to no avail. We worked on the issue and resources including required computers, were bought and now the institution is accredited.
Another thing, we have worked very hard on is the development of the NHTC, and soon a Bill will be presented in parliament, seeking to elevate the institution to a medical university of health.
When we resumed work in 2022, the project to build Maseru District Hospital had been put on hold despite the availability of a budget of about M40 million, which had been set aside to ensure that the hospital was renovated. So, we ensured that it resumed and now it has been completed. We called all relevant ministries to resolve challenges that were restricting progress on the project.
We also started what is called project acceleration, for all projects that were still pending. We monitored those acceleration plans to ensure that all projects were completed.
The Cancer Centre, we found construction of its three platforms pending since 2011. Construction was started then abandoned, and then the little progress that had been made there was damaged by heavy rains over time, costing the government M6 million for reconstruction.
The committee intervened and ensured that the project was completed within five months, with less money compared to what was originally budgeted for the project. As we speak now, the Cancer Centre is operational.
Recently we just resolved grievances of health workers deployed in hard-to-reach areas of the country regarding their hardship allowances. We called the Ministries of Finance and Development Planning, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Public Service and requested them to resolve the matter. The promise to review the allowance level dated back from 2006. It was long overdue.
When those ministries tried to give us problems, we approached the Office of the Prime Minister and talked to Professor Ntoi Rapapa who was holding the fort at the time, and requested that he intervene, ensuring that the issue was resolved. He did just that and public servants including health workers, will be getting increased hardship allowances starting this month.
Still on achievements, the Kao community (Butha-Buthe) approached the committee, informing us that since they were built a clinic by the Kao mine, there had not been services offered due to the absence of health workers at the clinic. They said the clinic had been non-operational but as we speak now, it is open and will be offering health services to the community starting this week. We did not even know about the clinic; it was our first-time hearing about it.
We also made sure that the government set aside funds to pay Ministry of Health debts to South African hospitals in Bloemfontein. We fought and even threatened to snub the annual budget if such money was not budgeted. We are talking about a debt which had accumulated for years. The government was saying it did not have money, but we told them that payment of the debt was essential so that Basotho could freely access health services in South Africa, feeling safe.
Christian Health Association Lesotho (CHAL)-owned hospitals were no longer being given a subvention by the government. They were only provided with salaries, and that resulted in the hospitals struggling and failing to offer quality health services they were famous for. We sat down with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and requested that the hospitals be given a quarterly operational budget, without fail. That also has been addressed.
LT: We understand that the People’s Republic of China has deployed only six doctors to work at the Maseru District Dospital. What is the government doing to ensure that the hospital operates at its maximum capacity, and without restrictions caused by shortage of staff?
Makhalanyane: The hospital is installed with a telemedicine system where doctors and specialists outside the country do not necessarily need to be in there physically to see patients, but can do so remotely. Some doctors will come to the country as the government is still in talks with the labour diaspora. So, we have options. Chinese doctors will be deployed to assist, and our specialists will work remotely through the telemedicine system. International doctors and specialists will annually visit the country to help with complicated medical cases.
LT: Has the government made any offers to Basotho specialist doctors working in the diaspora to return home and work at the hospital?
Makhalanyane: Not that I am aware of.
LT: What challenges does the committee encounter in its line of work, which in turn restricts it from unleashing its full potential?
Makhalanyane: Lack of monitoring systems. I am talking about standard operating procedures. We do not have guiding systems, or templates to guide us during performance monitoring of different ministries. Monitoring systems include reporting templates, timelines or checklists of what to check while assessing performance of a certain ministry. A lot of monitoring and performance assessment is not effectively done and as a result, parliament fails to make informed decisions.
LT: How do you operate without the needed systems?
Makhalanyane: You can ask that again. Everyone is working the best way they can, without the guiding tools. This is the reason you do not see reports. I am currently talking with my team to work on the annual report. We need to account to the people, tell them what we have been doing, how much we were given and how it was spent. The budget for the social cluster is 21 percent of the whole budget, which it must allocate to its ministries.
We need to report on the performance of the ministries we are mandated to oversee and whose operations we monitor. And without the tools I am talking about, it is difficult.
