12/05/2025
LEC fails to account for M568m
---In yet another expose of gross mismanagement at the utility
By: Mohloai Mpesi
IN yet another dumbfounding episode of humungous mismanagement in the public sector, the country’s main power utility, the Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC), cannot account for a whopping M568 million.
The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard on Thursday that an audit of the LEC by Auditor-General, Mathabo Makenete, for the financial year ending March 2023, had uncovered the M568 million scam.
The LEC had failed to produce any supporting documents to back the M568 million worth of revenue and expenditure transactions, forcing Ms Makenete’s office to issue a disclaimer on its accounts.
A disclaimer is the worst category of an opinion that an auditor can render to any entity. It means the auditor is unable to form an opinion on the fairness of the financial statements due to lack of sufficient and appropriate audit evidence.
This often occurs when the company's records are incomplete or unreliable, or in the case of the LEC, when they are totally absent, constricting the auditor from performing the necessary audit procedures.
The PAC was told on Thursday that the Auditor-General’s office had repeatedly asked for the supporting documents from LEC management to no avail. The LEC had promised to produce the documents but never did.
That had forced Ms Makenete to seek the help of the PAC, resulting in Thursday's session at which the LEC was again caught in sixes and sevens.
Fuming MPs then demanded action on the LEC. It was high time the police and the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) swooped on the power utility to arrest the thieving managers responsible for all the maladministration at arguably the country’s most strategic public utility, said Basotho Patriotic Party (BPP) leader Tefo Mapesela.