Mathatisi Sebusi / Moroke Sekoboto
CENTRAL Bank of Lesotho (CBL) governor, Maluke Letete, has vehemently rejected allegations of theft of nearly M50 million at the top bank.
No money had been stolen at the central bank as alleged by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the government was free to audit the CBL’s accounts to prove that fact, he said.
Dr Letete urged the PAC to implement its threatened move to order Auditor General, ‘Mathabo Makenete, to audit the bank’s books. Such an audit would prove that no money had been stolen from the bank, Dr Letete said.
The governor spoke at a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) presser at the CBL premises in Maseru this week at which the MPC’s decision to maintain the repo rate at 7.75 percent was announced.
Unauthorized transactions amounting to M48.7 million at the CBL were alleged in the report of the Auditor General for the financial year ended 31 March 2022.
In her scathing report, the AG accused the government and its institutions of mismanaging public funds.
The PAC said it would consider asking the Auditor General to fully audit the CBL after the report accused the central bank of making irregular payments amounting to nearly M48.7 million. Some of the payments involved were alleged duplicate payments which the PAC suspected had been deliberately made by CBL staff to defraud the government.
When CBL officials appeared before the PAC, they failed to satisfy its members with the answers they gave. The PAC members then accused the bank of “covering up fraud” after it failed to reveal the personnel who were on duty on the days the alleged duplicate transactions in question were made. Instead, they heard the bank had resolved to pay the government back the money lost due to the duplicate payments.
A transaction that attracted the committee’s attention – as an example - was a duplication of M1,289,945 to a South African company, MRP Enterprises (Pty) Ltd. The company was paid M2,579,890 instead of M1,289,945.
Chairperson of the PAC, Machabana Lemphane-Letsie, had accused the CBL of “covering up” fraud and protecting the culprits. The only way to get to the bottom of the matter was to direct the Auditor General to perform a full audit of the CBL.
However, Dr Letete said the CBL was the only “credible institution” he knew in Lesotho. He said they were therefore open to any audit to prove that they had never stolen any money.
“I am not speaking because I manage it (central bank), but the only institution that I know in this country that is credible is the CBL. It will remain credible, it has never stolen anyone’s money, and I can stand by that.
“I am very proud, hence I say we are open for any member of parliament or whoever wants, to come and do the audit as they wish because we are a law-abiding, transparent and credible institution….,” Dr Letete said.
“I am repeating that we are transparent and open to anyone in this country to do whatever audit they want regarding the use of public funds within the CBL. We cannot stop anyone because we know we are clean. I am proud to say so. I know that even when I worked for the government, I came out clean… That is why I was appointed governor.
“Now, who doubts that? Who said money from CBL disappeared? Go and tell them to come and investigate what they claim was stolen inside the bank,” he said.
PAC chairperson, Lemphane-Letsie, had berated the CBL for dabbling in crime by not fully explaining the duplicate payments alleged to have been made by bank officials.
