Parley orders forensic audit on Botswana Railways
Pauline Dikuelo | Friday November 25, 2016 16:01
This came out Wednesday after the committee found that the corporation’s finance and procurement controls are generally ineffective.
Appearing before the committee, the parastatal’s chief executive officer, Dominic Ntwaagae together with the finance director, Gobona Tobedza, fumbled when quizzed on the financial position of BR.
“You give us impression that you do not know what you are running. If as a CEO you can’t manage the cashflows, balance sheet, and so on, then you should know that you are not in business,” committee chairman, Samson Moyo Guma said.
The committee also expressed shock at the executives’ failure to account for the dry port facility at Walvis Bay in Namibia.
It was found that the government spends about N$500,000 a month for rental of the port run by Sea Rail, a subsidiary of BR, which is registered in Namibia and Botswana.
The parastatal also failed to account for the salaries of the personnel employed by the Sea Rail.
Another issue that was revealed was that the parastatal had exceeded its travel budget by P1 million which the executives failed to explain.
The other issue that was raised was the procurement of 562 wagons by the BR, which the committee stated that proper channels were not followed.
The committee concluded that the parastatal has no continuity business management plan. “You don’t have a vision, no plan whatsoever to run this organisation. This is a disaster. Go and re-assess yourself,” said committee member, Gabane-Mmankgodi legislator, Pius Mokgware.
The committee also suggested that BR should focus on its core mandate and relinquish some of the responsibilities that are not viable.
Last year, BR contracted Transnet to manufacture 37 passenger coaches for R250 million (P180 million).
This sparked widespread circulation of reports about the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) raiding BR offices as part of an investigation related to the Transnet tender.
Botswana is the first country to order passenger coaches from Transnet whose business has previously been focused on building coaches for South Africa’s Blue Train as well as wagons and locomotives for other customers.