“Re jelwe ke batswakwa,” Khama is reported to have told the Kgotla meeting in Tlokweng, adding that the losses were unrecoverable. At face value, it would appear the President’s comments are justifiable. After all, several multi-billion Pula projects handed out to foreign companies have run over cost and budget, while suffering from quality issues. A closer perusal of his statement though, raises several disconcerting points, not the least of which is the fact that the foreigners he speaks about were duly appointed through government’s own procurement processes. Over the years, government has fine-tuned its procurement system with structures such as the PPADB, ministerial and local authority tender committees as well as processes such as contractor registration, online support and the numerous tender methods. All these systems are designed to ensure that each taxpayer thebe is optimally utilised and accounted for and that Batswana reap value from the investments government makes in their interests. It is therefore, evident that the alleged failure by foreign companies is the end result of a system established, fine-tuned and managed by government. None of the Chinese contractors being blamed for non-delivery of some infrastructural projects, appointed themselves. If any finger of blame should be raised, it should point firstly at government’s own lax procurement process and secondly, laissez-faire supervision and monitoring. Supervision and monitoring in particular has been sorely non-committal across the spectrum of projects by scale, with a clear gap between the consultants engaged for this purpose and the government officials whose primary responsibility it is. The Sir Seretse Khama International Airport’s refurbishment is a case in point. The project, initially billed at P433 million, is now more than P100 million in excess and the foreign contractor booted out. A highly experienced aviation consultancy was engaged to handhold government in the supervision and monitoring of this project and it is still unclear through which cracks the responsibility fell. Another project, the infamous Morupule B power station, has no less than four supervisory agents, including government, the World Bank and African Development Bank, but a US team has had to be engaged, at further cost, to pinpoint the root cause of faults at the project. Again in this example, the buck stops with government’s own procurement process and its commitment to supervision and monitoring. Taken in this light, the President’s statement sounds like an attempt at whipping up patriotic or nationalistic sentiment while ignoring the real heart of the matter. We sincerely hope this is not the attitude prevailing in government’s highest circles; that of blaming foreigners. The attitude should be an introspection that begins with policy and decision-makers holding the value of one taxpayer thebe in higher esteem.
