Guma questions advance payment to Red Pepper
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Friday December 2, 2016 15:46
The committee found out that Red Pepper received 50% payment in advance from BNSC on March 16, 2016 for a BOT50 pre-independence celebration held at the National Stadium. The committee established that at the time, BOT50 coordinator Charity Kgotlafela instructed the BNSC to pay Red Pepper P7.2 million before the awarding of the tender. At the time, the Ministerial Tender Committee (MTC) had not approved the tender, which according to Samson Moyo Guma is fraudulent. Guma also challenged the BOT50’s authority to evaluate tenders. The MTCe would later on approve the tender on April 19, 2016. It is also said that the BNSC board did not approve the payment.
Both the BOT50 and BNSC re-appeared before the Guma’s committee on Wednesday. BNSC chief executive officer Falcon Sedimo, who was the first to take the stand said he received an instruction from the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture to disburse the funds to Red Pepper.
“We had no reason to believe that anything would go wrong with Red Pepper. The tender with Red Pepper was done at ministry level. We were just requested to facilitate transactions,” Sedimo explained.
Sedimo said the BNSC was selected together with Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) and Vision 2016 Council for BOT50’s programme implementation.
The deputy permanent secretary and also chairperson of the MTC that approved the tender, Peter Mongwaketse, agreed with Guma’s committee that according to government procurement practice, no payment should be done before adjudication by MTC. However, he said that BOT50 as an integral unit at the ministry, had the authority to evaluate and pass tenders to MTC for adjudication. He said the PPADB Act gives it the authority. He said that BNSC, BTO and the Vision 2016 Council were chosen to assist BOT50 because they have better turn-around time, but not because they flaunt regulations. “It is standard government practice. I don’t know what could have happened in this case. Maybe the coordinator is best placed to answer this one,” he said.
He said when a recommendation was made by BOT50 in March to award a tender of P12.4 million to Red Pepper on a selective state, it had a vote of P130 million, which was inclusive of the BOT50 money and for other celebration activities, which ascertained that it will be able to pay its client.
Guma put to Mongwaketse that he was the root cause of the problems at the ministry.
“In your capacity as the DPS, you are the biggest problem in the ministry,” said Guma.
He said any payment made before adjudication by MTC is illegal according to government practice. He said it is even worse that when the 50% payment was disbursed to Red Pepper, no security was provided for it. He stated that in any case, government could only pay up to 15%, provided there is a guarantee. Guma said the only reason the ministry requested BNSC and others to disburse money on its behalf, was because it was the end of financial year, hence it was going to be difficult to release any from its account after March. Guma also questioned why there was never an attempt to negotiate with Red Pepper to reduce charges.
For her part coordinator of BOT50, Charity Kgotlafela explained that they negotiated with Red Pepper to discount for the sound system used on September 30. She said the initial price was P4.2 million, but they managed to get it for P2.5 million. She said that BOT50 was running a mammoth event.
Red Pepper benefited over P14 million from the BOT50 celebrations after it was paid another P2.5 million for provision of sound system on Independence Day at the National Stadium.