Surprise as teacher takes over P80,000 tender
Bame Piet | Monday March 17, 2014 16:10
The tender was awarded to a local contractor who disappeared into thin air only for the teacher to emerge as the sole worker on site.
More curiosity. Tseleng is on study leave. He is a student at the University of Botswana, where he should be studying No wonder his sudden appearance as the sole worker in the paving job has got everyone asking questions.
It would raise eyebrows any day when an official of a school’s PTA is seen doing a construction tender he was directly involved in awarding.
That is exactly what teachers and parents at Motswedi CJSS in Gaborone are wondering about after their secretary started working on the menial job. What compounds matters is that the Public Service Act does not allow him to do what he is doing.
If Tseleng is a contractor, he is an unusual one. He is doing everything himself with no helper. Doesn’t he care about job creation?
Curious teachers who want to know how their colleague landed the tender say they have been met with warnings and threats of disciplinary action from the school’s acting head. Some speculate that he may be under punishment after the contractor abandoned the project.
Accusations of corruption, nepotism and maladministration have divided teachers at the school to the extent that some are regular visitors at the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) offices.
A group of teachers invited The Monitor to witness Tseleng in action; mixing cement, water and sand to pave the school parking lot. The Monitor team visited the school on Friday and found the teacher hard at work. One of the teachers alleged that they have inquired several times from the acting school head if Tseleng is qualified to do paving. The response has been that he is volunteering. The teacher alleged that the school head did not take kindly to any further questions on the matter, threatening the curious teachers with disciplinary action.
“Sometime last year, the PTA called teachers and informed us about a P80,000 available for paving this area. A contractor was engaged to do the paving and along the way, he just disappeared and later came this guy who is now paving,” a teacher at the school said.
“As you can see, he is paving this area, we do not know where he got the expertise to do cement and brick work when he is just a Religious Education teacher,” said another teacher. The teachers allege that Tseleng was secretary of the PTA when the job was awarded. There has been no explanation of what happened to the contractor, or why Tseleng has now taken over.
The teachers allege that at some point, the school head ordered the maintenance team to assist the man do the paving and threatened to withhold their overtime payment should they refuse.
As the secretary of the PTA, Tseleng managed the school’s tuck shop which has since collapsed.
The acting school head, Molebeledi Makgolo, declined to comment on the matter referring queries to the regional education office. “We have channels through which teachers can lodge their complaints. As to any information regarding the school, you will have to direct your enquiries to the regional education office,” he said.
DCEC spokesperson, Lentswe Motshoganetsi confirmed that his office has received many complaints of corruption from junior secondary schools. He would not specify which schools they are currently investigating. Efforts to speak to
Tseleng proved futile because he did not answer his phone.