Manake to appoint CEOs for BMC, NARDI

Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday October 25, 2021 06:00

Manake has 30 days to fulfill a promise she has made before the Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises PIC: PHATSIMO KAPENG

The Nevah Tshabang-chaired committee relayed its disappointment with Manake over a number of vacant leadership positions within the State Enterprises under her ministry. The Committee summoned Manake after State Enterprises under her, being the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) failed to send a chief executive officer (CEO) or acting CEO and has no full Board; the National Agricultural Research And Development Institute (NARDI) appointed an acting CEO on the day of appearance and also has no full Board; National Food Technology Research Centre (NFTRC) has no managing director (MD) nor an acting MD. “We have called you here since we are unable to make state enterprises under your watch to account. The Minister shall appoint the CEO at BMC as per the Act. BMC appeared before the Committee and it came to light that it has no substantive CEO for years now. On the other hand, BMC is not doing well and we expect you would have been proactive and appointed a CEO.

Botswana Accountancy Oversight Authority (BAOA) report shows BMC audited position is P1.3 billion losses. It made a loss of P106 million the last time audited financials were recorded,” committee chairperson Never Tshabang said. About NARDI, Tshabang said they were concerned that sometimes it has a Board and in some instances it does not. He said they were not amused that NARDI had gone for long without a CEO only for them to appoint an acting CEO on their day of appearance before the committee. He further said they were concerned why an acting permanent secretary could appoint a caretaker administrator at NFTRC instead of an MD or acting MD.

“Starting with BMC having no substantive CEO since 2018, we have not appointed anybody because of the challenges the BMC is facing and government wants to bring it back to life. There was no policy direction hence we came up with the transition bill looking at the status quo at BMC. Currently I request we understand that we are going through a process of appointing a CEO.

We have done all the necessary assessment and all the interviews. We will have the CEO in no time,´ she said. Manake admitted that the commission has been doing badly for a number of reasons including poor management. She, however, said she was happy to report that the life of BMC is improving on a daily basis and once they are done with the transitioning they will do a report on the process. On NARDI, she said: “NARDI Board has been put together and I hope Cabinet will appoint it tomorrow and they will be able to run it.

We had an acting CEO from 2018 whose contract has ended and we were looking to have the merger concluded and have one CEO. We have since appointed an acting CEO seconded from the Ministry to act on the merger.

The merger has been slow due to budget not being enough and sometimes extended to the following year. We believe it will now run per its mandate of food security for the country.” Under NARDI, the services previously offered by NFTRC, the Department of Agricultural Research (DAR) and the Botswana National Veterinary Laboratory (BNVL) will be effectively decentralised across the country. On why NFTRC is leaderless, Manake said they made a mistake thinking the merger would happen sooner and they would only need to appoint one CEO and a single Board.

Even after providing the answer, the committee members still expressed their concerns over the way the ministry is managing enterprises it supervises. Mahalapye East legislator, Yandani Boko told the Minister that they were not amused. “We have a problem with your organisations as a committee. We meet once a year to examine the reports but for your organisations, there is a pattern where most appear without relevant documents, relevant officers and some come on secondment even without letters. We have an obligation to perform, but with your ministry we are delayed to do the work. What can you say to the committee when you find yourself in this position? This is bothering the committee.

It also happened last year,” he said. Selebi- Phikwe East legislator Kgoberego Nkawana quizzed: “Who is failing? Is it the leadership or employees? Why are you failing to execute as per the Act. For many years, the organisations have been leaderless, things keep getting bad. You are not appointing while waiting for mergers but things keep getting bad. I believe it is the Minister failing.” Shoshong Member of Parliament, Aubrey Lesaso said they were concerned about the BMC issue. “The Minister said they are restructuring without a substantive CEO. Why not find the CEO to lead the revamping and restructuring during the liberalisation of the beef industry? We need to know what has been happening at BMC and how we got to improve prices for farmers when there is no leader. We need to know why we have BMC not perform for so long." Tshabang, who is Nkange legislator said the transition bill was not enough to stop the ministry from appointing a CEO.

He stated that it is not clear who does what at BMC and suggested that they should recommend to Parliament to stop subventions given to the state enterprises until they get their houses in order. In response, Manake said they are realigning government machinery. She said they are working to realign the organisations and group similar mandates to increase effectiveness. She said they are looking to ensure proper monitoring, understanding roles and responsibilities.

On how BMC has been operating, Manake said the commission has human resource and finance and administration personnel who took care. She said the Board has the lee way to appoint one of their own to run the institution but that could not happen owing to disagreement over remuneration. In closing, Manake promised they will ensure the BMC has a CEO in 30 days and that Boards and CEOS for other organisations will also be appointed.