WUC engineers busted for corruption
Staff Writer | Monday August 28, 2023 06:00
According to the suit, the pair Timothy Mudongo and Rebaone Letsatle were using their positions to receive ‘bribes’ from a Chinese contractor to finance their lavish lifestyles.
Between 2019 and 2022,the two WUC employees lived off the company, Beijing Enterprises Water group Corporation Limited which was contracted by WUC for the waste water treatment and sewer works at its Glen Valley station.
Mudongo was the project engineer whilst Letsatle was the project manager for the contract.
Their charge sheet says the pair and their families lived in rented houses paid for by the company and the latter even financed their family vacations.
The disgraced engineers appeared before Extension II Magistrate's Court this week where they pleaded not guilty for all five counts.
Mudongo according to the state , on or about August 1, 2019, corruptly used his position as an employee of WUC to obtain valuable consideration for his benefit in that he had a house in Block 8, rented and paid for by the Chinese contractor.The state further alleges that again in March 2022, the same contractor rented and paid for another house for Mudongo in Block 10, as a reward for corruption.
The charge sheet further states that for the second accused, Letsatle also benefited from a rented a house paid for by the same company at the Partial location in Gaborone.
‘The second accused person, Rebaone Letsatle ,on or about February 27, 2020 , at or near Gaborone, in the administrative district of the republic of Botswana ,corruptly used his position as a public officer, to obtain a valuable consideration for his benefit in that he had a house, in Partial, Gaborone , rented for him by Beijen Enterprises Water group Corporation Limited had been engaged to do some waste water treatment and sewer works at WUC Glen Valley station,and works in respect of which the accused had been appointed by water Utilities Corporation as the project manager,’ reads his charge.
Further funding the two employees, the chinese company is said to have paid for holidays in Kasane where the two engineers spent nights at lavish and expensive hotels.
The state also alleges that the Chinese sponsored Modongo’s lavish trip on November 2022 whilst Letsatle’s vacation was sponsored in August 2022. Both of them according the state’s investigation spent nights at luxurious Cresta Mowana lodge in Kasane.
The matter is relation to a 2019 tender award which was for the rehabilitation of the treatment plant for a year and was awarded at a sum of P179,927,920.483. A figure which was later ballooned all the way to a little close to P300 million.