An ‘advice’ that came at a high price
Spira Tlhankane | Monday June 23, 2025 12:00
The project was necessitated by major challenges, including a severe water shortage and a lack of sewerage in Maun.
At the DIS instruction, the award was later revoked, and the tender was awarded to the second bidder, Zhengtai Group Botswana, on March 21, 2019, for the amount of over P1.873 billion. This was a shock due to the P300 million difference between the first bidder, China Jiangsu, and Zhengtai Group. Critics then indicated that it did not make economic sense for the ministry and government to choose the second bidder.
The reason for the revocation, according to the government, was that the DIS had disclosed that their investigations had shown that China Jiangsu International was involved in activities that pose a threat to national security.
In line with their mandate, it is said that DIS shared information with the board in relation to the Maun water works about China Jiangsu being a threat to national security, which the board then considered when making its decision. A confidential letter dated April 2, 2019, from the DIS addressed to the Permanent Secretary of the then Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services advised the ministry to terminate all deals with the company due to security reasons.
The company then launched an urgent application on March 27, 2019, before the High Court seeking an interdiction for the re-awarding of the tender to their rival company, Zhengtai Group Botswana.
They wanted the PPADB’s decision to re-award the tender to their rival set aside pending review proceedings they had instituted against the ministry, PPADB, and the Attorney General for the withdrawal of the tender. The government then lost the tender to China Jiangsu through a court order. Jiangsu was given the tender back when the High Court rubbished the DIS warnings and ordered the Ministry and PPADB to issue the tender. The government appealed and won the case, and its second preferred construction company, Zhengtai, was given the go-ahead to continue with the works. The Court of Appeal (CoA) ruled that the State had the right in its power to rescind the tender from Jiangsu as per the warning of the DIS.
Justice Monametsi Gaongalelwe said according to the State’s affidavit, it indicated that another construction company, Zhengtai, had already started doing works on the project and that it had also incurred costs borne out of expenditure on the project.
It did not end at the apex court, but this intervention by the DIS later came back to haunt the government, and the latter, through Water Utilities Corporation (WUC), who ended up paying P112 million to China Jiangsu International.
Following the decisions and others related, legislators in the 12th Parliament complained about the DIS’s involvement in the tender adjudication process, saying it was problematic. With more reports that the DIS was interfering in the awarding of the multi-billion tenders, the Director General (DG) of the security organ, Peter Magos, told the parliamentary oversight body, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), that their mandate is to safeguard Botswana’s national security, which includes advising government ministries.
Magosi clarified before the PAC that they only give ministries intelligence, and it is up to the latter to make a final decision on it.
He also said they have never meddled in government tenders. Former Minister of Transport and Communications, Thulagano Segokgo told Parliament in 2022 that no provision in the PPADB Act allows for the DIS to determine the awarding of tenders.
Segokgo explained that Section 53 (1) of the PPADB Act, however, provided for complaints by various stakeholders in respect of any party to a procurement or disposal activity. He added that Section 53 (2) further provided for oversight agencies such as the DIS to undertake any inquiry into an alleged or actual breach in the procurement or disposal process. “The DIS has never directed any company not to be allocated tenders,” he said at the time. He admitted that some public tenders were awarded by the PPADB and were reversed upon advice by the DIS.
Ministry PS contradicts Magosi
A few weeks ago, the Ministry of Water and Human Settlement’s accounting Officer, Bonolo Khumotaka said they did not make the final decision about the Maun Water tender but rather relied on the DIS advice. Maun East legislator, Goretetse Kekgonegile had asked Khumotaka if the ministry undertakes intelligence on contractors before the latter are awarded tenders.
Khumotaka said they took the DIS advice to revoke the Maun project tender, and award it to the current contractor, Zhengtai Group, and compensate China Jiangsu. She maintained that it was not the ministry’s decision to revoke the tender. The PAC chairperson, Taolo Lucas, however, put it to her that the DIS DG Magosi told the PAC that the controversial security organ only advises and that the final decision lies with ministries.
She said they had to take DIS advice because their ministry does not operate in isolation, and that there was a reason other government entities exist in the government machinery. “If they pick something according to their mandate, we cannot just sit back and not respond to or act on their advice. They advised us and we implemented what they submitted,” Khumotaka told the PAC.
Khumotaka admitted to the PAC that she is aware that the revocation decision cost the government P112 million and that an accounting officer is supposed to take responsibility for that. She, however, said she cannot take that responsibility because she was not the accounting officer at the time. When asked by Kekgonegile if any action had been taken against the responsible accounting officer, she said she was not aware. Khumotaka clarified that the DIS does not interfere in tenders, but rather, their mandate is vast.
She initially said the ITT that goes out there for the bidders to respond to is sufficient and strong enough to gather the required information about the prospective bidders. She said they check if bidders have the technical expertise and equipment to undertake such a project. She said if they do not engage ITT, they end up attracting garbage.
During the groundbreaking of the project in 2019, the government revealed that it had packaged the project into four mutually dependent contracts, all of which were planned to be completed at the same time. The first contractor is supposed to focus on the design, supply, and building of the water distribution network, sanitation reticulation, telemetry, SCADA, and other associated works. The second contract was to undertake borehole equipping, borehole collector lines, water treatment plant and transmission pipelines, booster stations, and associated works. Contract number three was to focus on the Maun wastewater treatment plant at the east and west, including instrumentation and control, and associated works. The last one was to implement the Maun satellite villages’ connections, including a treatment plant at Sexaxa.
With the Maun water supply and sanitation project reportedly costing the government millions of pula, there are contradictory statements from the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) and the Ministry of Water and Human Settlement’s accounting officer on who decided to revoke and re-award the tender. Mmegi Staffer SPIRA TLHANKANE looks back at the ‘intel’ and ‘advice’, which led to a legal battle that cost millions