The petition concerns what they term deliberate failure to take action against Botswana Life Insurance Company for fraudulent missell by the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) CEO. Amongst other things, they want the minister to take action against those involved in the missell and possibly fire the NBFIRA CEO for sitting on the matter for years. BGI was formed as a result of the dissolution of the Department of Geological Survey (DGS) in 2015. At inception, the employees bemoaned BGI management and Botswana Life Insurance Company went into an agreement to establish individual retirement policies for permanent and pensionable employees of the parastatal.
According to the employees, this agreement was made without their consent and they believe they were deceived by the two parties – that they were being enrolled into a pension, with the employer contributing 15% and the employee contributing five percent, as per their contracts of employment. When the employees realised that they were made to buy individual policies under the pretext of a pension fund, they raised their concerns with both BGI and Botswana Life. After it became evident that both parties weren't owning up to the injustice, they decided to lodge a complaint with the regulator-NBFIRA. “The current CEO of BGI instituted a task team to investigate this matter after it was brought to his attention. A task team report was done, concluded, and handed to the Joint Negotiations Consultative Committee (JNCC). The report outlined a number of irregularities that transpired when this fraudulent pension fund was established. “The report shows that the employer violated the procurement processes when establishing this pension fund, resulting in a mis-procurement. No action was taken against those who were involved in this mess, instead the employer chose to defend the matter after the employees reported it to NBFIRA,” they wrote on the petition. The issues The employees state that they seek Gaolathe’s intervention in ensuring that fairness and justice prevail in the handling of an issue they have presented to NBFIRA for adjudication. They noted that despite having followed all due processes and procedures, they have experienced what they believe to be unfair treatment, or grounds of collusion as outlined below:
