BMC most indebted parastatal to gov�t
Staff Writer | Friday December 2, 2016 16:10
According to Matambo not only is BMC the most indebted at P545 million but it is also the only parastatal that fails to service its debt.
“BMC is the only parastatal which is failing to service its loans. Government has in the past restructured BMC to be a viable entity and to attain its going concern status. In recent times from 2014, government also provided equity capital to assist BMC with working capital and to strengthen its balance sheet,” said Matambo.
Other parastatals that owe the government include Botswana Housing Corporation (P425 million) National Development Bank (P300 million) BotswanaPost (P140 million) and Botswana Savings Bank (P105 million).
Government provides debt to parastatals through the Public Debt Service Fund and each debt has a repayment schedule which is used to service the debt.
In the past five years, BMC has been experiencing cash flow problems due to their two loss making abattoirs in Francistown and Maun at P170 million and P200 million respectively.
Briefing the parliamentarians recently, the Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Patrick Ralotsia said the objective of the institutional restructuring process is to improve the cash position of the commission resulting in timely payments to all suppliers and producers.
According to Ralotsia, currently the commission is clearing all payments that were due in October 2016 at all the three abattoirs and anticipates that they will all have been made by the end of this month.
Further the minister noted that a decision will soon be made on how best the existing setup could be reviewed to give the industry a good return on investment.
BMC’s CEO Akolang Tombale earlier indicated that the consultant that they have engaged has suggested that the commission will need close to P2 billion to turnaround their operations and become sustainable again. He said they have not approached anyone to assist in this regard noting that they are currently pushing the restructuring and modernising the Lobatse abattoir.