Boko, Gaolathe differ on direct tenders
Spira Tlhankane | Wednesday July 30, 2025 06:00
Gaolathe says that direct appointment is the least preferred method in public procurement, as it stifles competition, which is a basic principle of public procurement.
Since he took over the biggest office in the land last year in October, Boko has not shied away from emphasising his intention to adopt direct appointments and 'do away with outdated tendering regulations' that he says delay progress.
Recently, during the Alliance for Progressives (AP) congress in Serowe, President Boko once again took the microphone to highlight that the normal tendering procedure is corrupt. In a series of public addresses over the past few months, Boko has convinced Batswana that public procurement is one of the most corruption-prone government activities. Instead of open tendering, where any eligible business can bid, Boko wants direct tendering, where he will select a single supplier without competition.
But a few days after Boko’s Serowe address, where Gaolathe was present, the latter told Parliament that in line with Section 53 of the Public Procurement Act, the most preferred method of procurement is the Open Domestic Bidding method.
“In line with Regulation 20, direct appointment should only be used under exceptional circumstances where there is no room for competition due to limited potential contractors or where circumstances do not allow for open bidding,” he said.
Gaolathe, who doubles as the Minister of Finance and Vice President (VP), was responding to a question from Okavango West legislator Kenny Kapinga who had asked what the government has implemented to deal with corruption in procurement, particularly inflation of prices and substandard work and whether the adoption of direct appointment in awarding of tenders is not going to exacerbate the problem.
With Boko maintaining that he knows firsthand the corrupt world of tenders where cronies work together to cheat the system, Gaolathe told Parliament that Section 147 of the Public Procurement Act (PPA) provides for several offences relating to corruption, unethical conduct, and other offences.
“These offences include, amongst others: conniving or colluding to commit a fraudulent, corrupt, collusive, coercive, or obstructive act; opening of sealed tender before the public opening of the tender document; collusion; influence or attempt to influence procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage,” Gaolathe indicated.
Gaolathe added that the upcoming National eProcurement System (NePS) will alleviate some of the challenges that are currently experienced in public procurement relating to corruption, delays, and effective compliance monitoring. He said it will also enable transparent and competitive bidding, which reduces inflated pricing.
“The PP Act also provides for an Integrity Agreement; this is a standard agreement that is part of the tender documents that has to be completed by bidders as a declaration on ethical conduct, fraud, and corruption. In case of a successful bid, should the bidder be found to be in breach of the integrity agreement, the procuring entity has the right to cancel the procurement, including termination of any resulting contract at no cost or legal obligation on its part,” he said.
Gaolathe said suspension and de-listing of contractors that have breached the code of conduct is one other way of dealing with corruption in public procurement. The VP added that contractors are called to account, and the penalty includes suspension or delisting/debarment from participating in public procurement.
He said this also extends to the directors and shareholders of such entities, even where they join new companies. Gaolathe revealed that several companies have been subjected to suspension and delisting, and these include: Chawe Civil Engineering (Pty) Ltd (delisted indefinitely) and Marcian Concepts (Pty) Ltd (delisted permanently).
Gaolathe is not the first person to differ with Boko on public procurement. Two months ago, Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Finance, Tshokologo Kganetsano, told the parliamentary oversight body, Public Accounts Committee (PAC), that even though there is a provision for direct appointment in the Procurement Act, the government’s position is that it prefers open bidding. Direct procurement, where a government entity purchases directly from a single supplier without a competitive bidding process, has already caused panic in the tendering sector, where contractors fear that competition will be eroded and corruption promoted.
As President Boko takes the direct appointment route in his administration, the Auditor General’s report released last month noted that direct tendering constitutes an unfair advantage over other service providers who are not allowed to compete.
In the report on the country’s accounts ending March 2022, the Auditor General’s report indicated that a lack of competition may subject the government to unreasonable prices, amongst others. President Boko, who is resolute about abolishing the traditional method of tendering, says he prefers the Swiss Challenge Method (SCM), which he believes will solve the procurement problem in Botswana.
The Swiss Challenge Method (SCM) is a public procurement approach where a private entity, often with specialised knowledge, proposes an unsolicited project to the government. The government then seeks counter-proposals, and if a better proposal is received, the original proposer has the chance to match or improve it, ultimately determining the project's execution. “Your tender process is not going to work; I reject it openly and publicly. I don’t do tenders; it’s not going to work. The traditional manner in which it was done is not fraught; it is a seedbed for corruption,” Boko told government Accounting Officers in a high-level engagement last month.
Boko, who is convinced that open bidding is corrupt, told the accounting officers that the government needs to find new ways of procurement and that the SCM is the solution. He said in the SCM, there is an unsolicited bid, and eventually, they will call the best in the space and make the offer available to them. He said in the model, they compare ideas and choose the best one. He said, unlike in the normal tendering where people favour their friends, in the SCM, they deal with people they do not know and do not care about.