…as census payroll is now under scrutiny
…after Finance Ministry identifies overpayments to census enumerators and supervisors
Moroke Sekoboto
Lesotho’s public purse has sprung another leak. The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning has identified overpayments to Census Assistant Supervisors and Enumerators – the latest in a run of financial discrepancies that has left officials struggling to explain how public money keeps going astray.
The ministry is now investigating how many census workers were overpaid, and by how much.
The Bureau of Statistics (BoS) has confirmed the overpayments. Its Public Relations Officer, Neo Mokatsa, said the investigation was still at an early stage and that the institution could not yet confirm the number of affected beneficiaries or the total amount involved.
The incident adds to a growing list of financial discrepancies and alleged mismanagement of public funds across government institutions, and raises fresh questions about recurring payment errors – and about whether officials responsible for financial controls are ever held accountable.
Among cases previously reported is the Central Bank of Lesotho’s (CBL) handling of M524 million in government debt outside the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS).
That matter, along with other financial discrepancies including a duplicate payment of M1,2 million, was flagged by Auditor-General ‘Mathabo Makenete and subsequently investigated by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The CBL was ordered to reimburse the duplicate payment from its own reserves.
Another case involved the Tsoha O Iketsetse project, under which some beneficiaries were reportedly paid M5,000 instead of the intended M500, after Disaster Management Authority (DMA) officials mistakenly added an extra zero to the payment amount last year. The project was designed to assist impoverished families with immediate basic needs, including food, clothing and school shoes for children.
In a letter dated 10 August 2026, the Ministry of Finance instructed Census Assistant Supervisors and Enumerators who had received overpayments to report the matter immediately to their respective Constituency Supervisors.
The ministry also directed affected individuals not to withdraw or spend the excess funds until further instructions were issued.
“The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning wishes to inform all Census Assistant Supervisors and Enumerators that a review of wage and allowance disbursements has identified cases of overpayment to some individuals,” the ministry said.
Those who had received excess payments were urged to report the matter immediately, to enable the ministry and relevant authorities to verify the payments and facilitate recovery. The ministry warned beneficiaries to keep the excess funds in their accounts to allow for a smooth recovery process, and cautioned that spending money one is not entitled to is illegal – even if it has already been deposited into one’s bank account.
Ministry of Finance and Development Planning Public Relations Officer Keneuoe Mojaki said investigations would establish how the overpayments occurred, with further details to follow once the process was complete. She said the ministry could not yet provide more information because it was still gathering details from relevant departments.
Asked about the causes of the overpayments, and whether disciplinary action would be taken against officials responsible, Mojaki said the Ministry of Finance was primarily the custodian and overseer of public funds, and did not initiate payments on behalf of ministries and departments. Payments, she said, are initiated by accountants within individual departments, including the BoS, while the Ministry of Finance reviews supporting documentation and oversees compliance with financial procedures.
“The ministry is a custodian of public funds – it plays an oversight role. We don’t make payments for ministries and departments. There are accountants at different ministries and departments, including at Census, who initiate payments while the ministry audits the documentation,” Mojaki said.
She said the ministry had identified the overpayments and instructed the BoS to conduct an internal audit to establish what had gone wrong, but cautioned against blaming or suspending officials before an investigation had established the circumstances.
“Do officials intentionally initiate overpayments? I don’t think so. I believe those are human errors, as anyone can make a mistake. One can capture something wrong in the system – it’s only human,” she said, adding that the investigation would determine both the cause of the latest overpayments and whether further action was necessary. “We cannot rashly suspend a person over an overpayment before conducting an investigation. Until then, there is nothing to comment on.”
The recurrence of such errors nonetheless raises pointed questions about the effectiveness of internal financial controls and accountability mechanisms across government departments.
For the 2026 Lesotho Housing and Population Census, the BoS employed more than 8,000 temporary field staff, including enumerators and supervisors. It later emerged that additional staff had been recruited outside the approved quota, allegedly through irregular processes, pushing census costs above the M200 million budget.
The government subsequently suspended payments to the staff pending investigation. After several confrontations with aggrieved workers, it resolved to pay all of them despite concerns over the legality of some appointments. Payments were suspended again earlier this month, however, after it emerged that some workers had received more than they were entitled to. That matter is now under investigation.
BoS Director Malehloa Molato was suspended on 1 August 2026, amid ongoing concerns over the institution’s internal management and operational efficiency. The Bureau has come under scrutiny over delays in paying enumerators and other temporary staff engaged for the 2026 Population and Housing Census – delays that prompted an internal investigation into the alleged unauthorised engagement of enumerators.
In a memorandum to regional coordinators dated 18 June 2026 and signed by Molato, the Bureau raised concerns over the deployment of data collectors whose names did not appear on the official Facebook-based enumeration lists approved by the Office of the Principal Secretary. Regional offices were instructed to submit immediate reports explaining how enumerators not on the approved lists had been deployed to conduct fieldwork.
The BoS emphasised that all enumerators were to be selected strictly from the approved lists, with replacements made only through official procedures coordinated by the Human Resources Office. According to the memorandum, discrepancies were identified involving several enumerators deployed despite not appearing on the approved lists – irregularities believed to have contributed to the delays in processing payments for temporary staff.
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