BNSC chief rejects P600, 000 Mercedes Benz gift

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Wednesday May 15, 2013 00:00

 

Instead he prefers to drive a five-year-old car that was used by his predecessor, Kitso Kemoen.Raditladi, the founder of Yarona FM  station and also former G4s MD Botswana and Nigeria, tells the Mmegi sport rejecting the luxurious Mercedes Benz E200 package was one of the hardest decisions he had to make when he realised he was stepping into a BNSC with no funds.  ' The BNSC simply did not have money, they could not afford to pay for such a luxury,' he says.

According to Raditladi, from the first day, when he reported for duty on September 24, he immediately learnt he was dealing with a bankrupt organisation.  The BNSC expenses, according to him, had spiralled out of control over time, resulting in late payment of staff salaries. ' When I reported on day one, it was on the 24th, staff salaries had not been paid; they told me late payment of salaries had become routine; I had to work hard to ensure that their salaries were paid the next day, even though I was not going to get a salary myself'.

The BNSC CEO says he arrived at BNSC on the verge of closure by creditors who were being owed millions. Raditladi mentions that one of the creditors, Oasis Motel, was owed P1 million, being cumulative debt; ' there were so many creditors who lined up my office demanding payment, but there was no money.'

Raditladi narrates that at one point they tried to get an overdraft from their bank, but they were turned away. In frustration the BNSC had to move their account from Barclays to Stanbic. The BNSC's cumulative debts had reached P14 million, according to the new CEO. He credits himself for finding the BNSC some P652, 000, during the hard times. According to the CEO, during those hard times, he learnt that for the past three years the BNSC had been maintaining the National Stadium lawn at P28, 000 a month, while that should have been the responsibility of the Department of Buildings and Engineering Services (DEBS). The BNSC has since been refunded the P652, 000 for the lawn maintenance.

So broke was the BNSC, according to Raditladi, that they went cap-in-hand to solicit for extra funds from the Ministry of Youth Sport and Culture, but they were told 'to go back and set their priorities right'. Perhaps the ministry had a point, for an organisation that receives P64 million from the government annually; perhaps the ministry was right to expect them to use the funds prudently. But the picture was not as good as that, for out of the P64million, the BNSC was using P35 million for staff salary (P12 million) and associated costs, with only P29 million benefiting the affiliates.

Raditladi says faced with the task of prioritising the BNSC activities in order to reduce staff costs and save the organisation from the brink, in consultation with the executive committee and staff, he engaged in a restructuring process that has today cut the expected BNSC deficit to around P10 million.Raditladi's area of concern is that through the Cuban sport aid, the BNSC is made to pay P42, 000 a month for their services, which translates into huge amounts over the years.

He also found that the BNSC, after relocating to the stadium, was now operating two gyms, one at the stadium and one at Block 6, something he said was not necessary. The Block 6 gym, for instance, employing six staff, had contributed to loss of over P700, 000 in the last four years it had been operating. According to Raditladi, the Block 6 gym was consuming P30, 000 in rental a month, with staff costs of P17,000 a month, while it only made P40, 000.

The BNSC chief says going forward the alternative would have been to increase the gym fees, update equipment, and increase clients. But then again, a number of gyms in the city have been 'selling or closing down'.Raditladi is of the view that with the National Stadium gym in operation again, there was no need to have another gym in town because the Block 6 gym was opened while the National Stadium was closed for renovation in the first place. 

Today the stadium gym makes P46, 000 a month, and has low staff expense and no rentals to worry about.  This week the BNSC CEO finally secured a P5 million facility with Stanbic, which he hopes, will be enough to carry the BNSC up to April, when the funds for the new financial year are released. ' Otherwise we were not going to pay staff salaries, we were not going to meet affiliates' expectations,' he says. Raditladi is concerned that it seems over the years the BNSC's expenditure has been extravagant.

The CEO recalls an incident last year during the preparations of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA) Games in Zambia that there was a proposal to buy athletes kit for P3.5 million from a South African company. ' It came from one member of the board; and a I rejected it. With the support of the chairman (Solly Reikeletseng), we were able to source the kit locally for just less than half a million Pula.  I also had to take the bold decision of slimming the SCSA team from 270 to 103 athletes, to save costs, because there was no money.' Interns who were supposed to be paid P1, 800 a monthly, were paid P6, 000 at the BNSC.

Raditladi is of the view that affiliates should be getting a larger share of the money from the government.  He is not impressed that today over P35 million goes to the secretariat and its associated costs while the affiliates get just P29 million. ' The strategy is to have 70 percent of our workforce being sports officers working for our affiliates, doing our core mandate, which is to serve the affiliates; but over the years the BNSC has been blowing out of control.' Raditladi predicts that the current down-sizing at the BNSC secretariat will save the BNSC close to P2 million. It involves retrenching seven non-core staff members, which Raditladi says will in time be replaced with sports officers.

The retrenchment exercise has caused a stir among some BNSC affiliates, who this week gathered at a karate hall, discussing the plan to petition the BNSC chairperson to consult them regarding this exercise. Raditladi says although he has become the first CEO to do it, records show that concern over the bulging BNSC secretariat and the intention to cut it down had been there since the days of Dorcas Makgatho-Malesu, who was the chairperson for a long time. ' There was an attempt to restructure in the past, according to records, but when I came in we were caught between a rock and a hard place. From the very first day when I arrived, the BNSC had no money to pay salaries; I had to go to the bank with my chairperson to request for overdraft, that's what I found on day 1.

' As I dug deeper I realised that even the balance of   subvention funds was zero. If we did not carry out the retrenching exercise we would be in deeper trouble.'Raditladi says managing an organisation with shortage of cash is not a pleasant thing. He says he learnt his lessons from managing his radio station Yarona FM, and he did not want that scenario to rear its ugly head here. Contrary to popular view, Raditladi says he informed staff of the BNSC financial position and the need to restructure on December 12, which was followed by another consultation in January. The CEO) says he even invited counsellors to come and address the staff about the impending retrenchment. Raditladi says even the Ministry of Sport, the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, as well as the BNSC board, were consulted about the exercise.

' I am aware that the council wish they were consulted; but this is not a matter that concerns the council (the affiliates), it is the matter that pertains to the day-to-day running of the secretariat.  My interpretation of the BNSC Act is that there is nowhere where it demands the CEO or the secretariat affairs to be discussed at council level,' he says paging through the BNSC Act booklet. However, spokesman for the affiliates who gathered at the karate hall on Monday Ross Tebele says they will be petitioning the BNSC chairperson Reikeletseng to consult them ahead of the ordinary general meeting, about the staff retrenchment.