Through eyes of a journalist
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday December 27, 2021 06:00
BURS leakages aid tax evaders
While the government has gone all out in a bid to increase tax collection by adjusting various taxes early this year, I thought of just how every day I see how some businesses, especially foreign-owned operate. We always hear of them robbed of millions of pula in their homes or premises; they prefer cash transactions even for huge amounts. Couldn’t that cushion Batswana from all the taxes? Well, a highly placed expert opened up and condemned the move to make Batswana bear the costs of the tax-collecting organ’s inefficiencies. There is a need to reinforce the systems and processes of the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS). It is said that a lot of the foreign-owned businesses have used these gaps to master the art of tax evasion, siphoning off millions of pula out of the country daily.
“The problem starts at the borders with manipulation of the BURS system, which is not intelligent enough to detect some obvious undervaluing, for example. There are also officers there who allegedly connive with customs clearing agents. The problem of leakages is massive as BURS through the Investigations, Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) Unit has since pounced on many businesses who failed to declare rightfully. These are mostly foreign-owned operations. They have mastered the whole system and are declaring only a small amount of what is due to pay as they ‘fake’ invoices,” a source said. Even though he did not want to get into details, BURS general manager ICE, Kaone Molapo said indeed his department was overwhelmed by cases of tax evasion. “Following our operation, where we went after tax-evading car dealers, we realised that we could be having a bigger problem. We have indeed found many foreign-owned businesses to be a major problem even though Batswana and others were involved. They do undervalue goods and unfortunately, we only realise upon investigating when they should have been caught at our borders. They give fake invoices and even though it is too much work, we are working hard to collect the taxes from them,” he said.
As a journalist, I would like to see action taken by authorities and Batswana speaking out. I hope as you go out and enjoy your holidays, you think about such issues and see what role you can play.
BURS, DCEC pounce on millionaires
While still looking at the issues of Batswana having to bear the brunt for failure by those in business to comply with taxes, there was an outcry that some companies overcharged the government for COVID-19 supplies. It was only fair that we look into the tax compliance of some of the companies that benefited from the COVID-19 tenders and we laid our hands on some whose appointments had raised eyebrows.
We then established that BURS and the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) are supposedly breathing down Hutrex Group (Pty) Ltd and Moffat Group (Pty) Ltd’s necks.
The internal revenue and the corruption-busting agencies have been onto the two companies allegedly owing the revenue collector a combined P12 million in unpaid taxes. Mmegi investigations revealed that the two companies that were awarded a combined P47 million in tenders to supply masks could have gotten the tenders dubiously.
“The two security organs have been following them since the awarding of the tenders. The way tenders were awarded from the Office of the President (OP) with a clause that they were exempted from paying Value Added Tax (VAT) and Customs Duty while supplying seemingly overpriced masks raises eyebrows. That raised eyebrows as to what was happening and the agencies followed the money trail,” a source privy to the cases at the two organs told Mmegi. For his part, DCEC public relations officer Lentswe Motshoganetsi said: “I am not in a position to discuss operational matters of the DCEC as that is contrary to the Corruption and Economic Crime Act. However, I can confirm that the DCEC has received over 60 allegations of corruption pertaining to COVID-19. Some of the allegations are in relation to questionable procurements by some companies.”
I call on Batswana to speak up against corruption, expose it and ensure that all these 60 allegations relating to COVID-19 corruption are investigated thoroughly and all wrongdoers are brought to book. Maybe the President should appoint a Commission of Inquiry into all the COVID-19 corruption cases.
Audit exposes alleged SKMTH rotSir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital (SKMTH) opened doors in 2019 and got to get into the thick of things in fighting COVID-19.
The hospital was used to isolate and care for those with COVID-19. One would expect that things would run smoothly and with efficiency to welcome the new-kid-on-the-block. Unfortunately, reports started coming out that a lot about top managers moving in and out of the hospital. This left me curious and luckily, continuous internal audit reports were leaked!
An internal audit/investigation of pharmacy operations had exposed deep-seated rot within procurement at the SKMTH Pharmacy. The newly released report highlights concerns including amongst others lack of segregation of duties, irregularities in the selection of suppliers as well as conflicts of interest implicating management of the teaching hospital.
Since January 2021, only one inventory count was performed and the Pharmacy Department could not provide final reports thereof, rather referring the Internal Audit to the Procurement Department. This implies that no value or learnings were drawn from the exercise as the reports were never finalised and reviewed to identify and investigate any inefficiencies and variances (potential loss/theft, damages) as well as identifying ways to improve, said the report.
For his part, SKMTH PR and communications manager, Motabaseyo Nameela said: “Please note that internal audits are an ongoing part of the governance processes of the hospital. They are intended to identify areas of weakness and opportunities for improvement within hospital operations in line with best corporate governance practices”.
I hope that indeed the audit is important and we should see results. It is high time we stand for our institutions and ensure they run smoothly. Parliamentarians should stand up to see to it that they provide oversight and ensure that Batswana’s millions do not go to a select few.
Lastly, please leak stories to us in 2022. Public relations officers, ministers and other authorities should be open to speaking to us. We are not enemies, we love Botswana as much as you do. Happy holidays!