Parly failing to scrutinise budgets: Makhalanyane

Government services are not reaching the public due to ineffective monitoring of funds allocated by parliament, chair of chairs, Mokhothu Makhalanyane, has lamented.

He noted that despite parliament allocating budgets to government ministries every year, services had remained poor.

Makhalanyane made these remarks this week during a meeting of the parliamentary committee of chairs, aimed at reviewing the status of funds allocated to parliamentary committees and plan for the upcoming 2026/27 fiscal year, starting in April.

He said he believes that Lesotho is lagging behind other Southern African Customs Union countries economically owing to lack of oversight by parliamentary committees before allocating funds to ministries.

He also alleged that some politicians were not taking services to the people because they somehow benefit from lack of development, such as water, electricity and roads provision, which they then use as campaign tools towards elections.

“If they take services to communities, they will not have anything to use to campaign so that they can be voted into power,” he noted, adding this hinders progress and denies citizens their rights to basic services.

Parliament, through the committees, should ask ministries how they spent their budgets every year yet national challenges remain the same.

“For instance, parliament has been allocating funds for electricity each fiscal year since 1993 (33 years now) but there is still nothing Basotho can be proud of. The public cries for access to clean water, electricity and many more every day,” Makhalanyane pointed out.

He suggested that all government ministries reconsider their budgeting approach, saying the current system was not working.

He proposed allocating 60 percent of the capital budget for development to central districts like Maseru, Berea and Leribe and the remaining 40 percent to other districts.

Makhalanyane also revealed that parliament oversight committees, except the Economic Cluster, have been forced to stop inspecting provision of services in the 2025/2026 financial year after exhausting their budget allocations.

They will only be able to resume their activities after the next budget allocation, he said, adding that the  committees were allocated M3million for 2025/26.

This amount was inadequate to oversee the M300 billion national budget, he indicated.

“I have asked the committees to halt their activities, especially inspections. M3million is inadequate to effectively oversee the M300billon national budget,” he said.

Makhalanyane further noted that for the current financial year, the Social Cluster committee had done well in inspecting health facilities, schools, social development services, correctional services, and the Lesotho Defence Force.

In addition, parliamentary committees received vehicles, enabling them to inspect public services countrywide and review ministry budget utilisation.