BCL liquidation gobbles P1.9bn
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday December 20, 2022 06:00
He was responding to a question by Selebi-Phikwe West legislator, Dithapelo Keorapetse who wanted an update on the BCL liquidation: cost, duration and sales of assets. “Government has advanced P1,698,782,027.80 to the BCL liquidator since November 24, 2016. Also, government has paid a sum of P163,358,385 as terminal benefits to over 6,000 ex-BCL employees.
Funding from government was used mainly for the following: Care and Maintenance expenses, insurance, VAT payments, labour costs, technical costs (general & project), Botswana Power Corporation debt, Water Utilities Corporation debt, hospital running costs, housing maintenance and expenditure, and professional and technical services consultancy fees,” he said.
BCL had over 6,000 employees at the time of its liquidation. Moagi further said the first Liquidation and Distribution Account (L&D) was lodged with the Master on December 9.
He said the L&D account includes a record of all disbursements (payments) and realisations (income) from the date of liquidation up to August 31. On whether any audit has been done on the funds used for liquidation by the Auditor General or any audit firm, Moagi said the liquidation is being undertaken under the supervision of the Chief Registrar and Master of the High Court and in terms of the Companies Act. In terms of this process, there is no provision for an audit. He said the laws of Botswana do not make provision for the audit of a company in liquidation.
The minister said although they desire that the liquidation process should not take longer than it already has, it is anticipated that all things remaining constant, the winding up of BCL Limited (in liquidation) and Tati Nickel Mining Company (Proprietary) Limited (in liquidation), as well as the sale of assets thereof, shall be completed by the second quarter of 2024.
Government made announcements to the effect that the liquidators had entered into transactions with the Premium Nickel Resources entities for the sale of the Selebi Mines (Selebi and Selebi North shafts) and Selkirk Mine in Tati. “These transactions have closed. Subsequent to this transaction, the remaining assets, which did not form part of the Selebi Mines, remain in the estate of BCL as does the portion of Tati assets, which did not form part of the Selkirk Mine. The liquidator commenced a sale process to seek offers to dispose of the remaining assets of BCL and Tati.
This sale process commenced with advertisements in both the local and international press on 20 April 2022. The closing date for this process was 30 November 2022. Offers from potential buyers have been received and are being considered,” he said.
Moagi also revealed that the Liquidator has made revenue amounting to P686,491,099.11 as at end of August 2022. He said the sum is made up of: the sale of aircraft and movable property such as vehicles, the sale of Selebi Mines to PNR, debtor collections (P125 miIlion), sale of copper-nickel matte (which raised over P100 million), payment of Care & Maintenance costs by PNR (P109miIIion), Rental income (P92million), VAT Refunds (P131miIIion) and other income from services rendered, and goods sold.