By Zweli Martin Dlamini

LOBAMBA:Madala Mhlanga,the Deputy Speaker in the House of Assembly and Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee(PAC) says,the statements issued by Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini declaring the Office of the Auditor General(AG) incompetent has grounded even the PAC.

As a result,the PAC Chairperson said,they resolved to suspend all sittings pending new guidance from the House or the Members of Parliament(MPs) who entrusted them with the task.

A constitutional crisis erupted on Thursday after Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini who was visibly angry,attacked the Office of the Auditor General amid calls for him to account for the missing R210million public and donated funds.

The Prime Minister who has been evasive when asked to account for the public funds,was responding to a question posed by Bheki Makhubu,the editor of the Nation Magazine.

The public funds disappeared at the hands of the PM while he was serving as the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of the National Disaster Management Agency(NDMA).

“It would be hard to even summon Principal Secretaries and demand accountability of public funds after the Prime Minister’s statements. So as the PAC, we have decided to suspend sittings pending guidance from the House or from the MPs who entrusted us with the task”, said the PAC Chairperson when addressing a press conference on Friday morning.

Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini has been stretching his political muscle,attacking all institutions that demand accountability of public funds, he first tried to regulate the media after being exposed to have failed to account for the missing public funds and was subsequently stopped by Information, Communications and Technology(ICT) Minister Savannah Maziya.

But on Thursday, the PM triggered a constitutional crisis in eSwatini when he single-handedly grounded both the Office of the Auditor General(AG) and the Parliament Public Accounts Committee(PAC).

It remains unclear if the country’s international partners and/or donors will continue to pump-in money for development projects amid the uncertainty in the eSwatini transparency and accountability systems.