Though the proposed The Leadership Code of Conduct Bill stipulates that public officials can receive gifts worth not more than E5 000, senior government officials have called for zero tolerance to gifting and gifts.
The official said gifting would normalise corruption yet the country was fight hard to obliterate.
The government officials said the provision for the E5 000 limit for declaring gifts or benefits in The Leadership Code of Conduct Bill would dampen efforts to fight corruption.
They argued that on a daily basis, public officials both senior and junior enriched themselves by collecting gifts and bribes for providing government services which should be free of charge except for legal service fees.
This was during the second day of the on-going sensitisation workshop on the Leadership Code of Conduct Bill held at the United Nations (UN) House yesterday.
The workshop was attended by senior government officials including under-secretaries from various ministries, representatives from the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS), His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) and Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF).
The Bill provides that a public official shall not receive any gift or benefit or hospitality in kind of the value of E5 000 or above.
Any gift or donation to a public official on any public or ceremonial occasion or commission to a public official on any transaction will be treated as a gift or donation or commission to government or institution represented by that public official.
Such donation must be declared to the commission or institution concerned.
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Director Jabu Phakathi questioned the reasoning behind the E5 000 limit for undeclared gifts instead of zero gifts.
“We should not normalise corruption by this because passing this Bill will mean that corruption is allowed up to a certain limit,” she said.
Phakathi said public officials salaried were paid by taxpayers and there was no reason for them to expect gifts, as such they should not be given even a cent for providing services.
She said on a daily basis, there were public officials receiving monetary gifts between E50 and E3 000, which she said promoted corruption. She added that public officials were cashing in and not declaring their gifts insisting on the need to cultivate a zero tolerance culture on gifts for public officials.
Phakathi said the Constitution was clear that only His Majesty King Mswati III and Her Majesty Indlovukazi as well as chiefs at community level were exempted and expected to receive gifts. “Let just leave it at that and have zero tolerance for gifts,” she said.
On that note, Deputy Director Public Prosecution Sibusiso Magagula said public officials were enriching themselves on an hourly and daily basis. He said this was not only limited to senior official, but also junior officials.
“For instance veterinary assistants collect gifts and bribes from farmers on a daily basis for providing services that were free of charge,” he said.
Magagula further raised a concern that the Bill seemed to focus mainly on offenses that had to do with money and less on conduct.
