The committee heard that farmers engaged to buy slaughter animals on behalf of BMC sold their cattle to the parastatal and earned a commission. Farmers engaged in the practice got the full price of the beast and five percent commission on top. BMC livestock procurement manager, Erense Kotoko told the committee that the buyers' strategy was introduced to increase throughput. Those engaged by the commission to buy cattle were supposed to get the five percent commission only. Kotoko admitted that it was irregular for the commission buyers to take their cattle and sell to the BMC and still get the commission. He admitted that the arrangement might have had a hand in the dire financial situation the BMC finds itself in.
He said the BMC engaged commission buyers because it was not well resourced to carry out cattle procurement from farmers. He was not sure who determined the pricing of the slaughter animals but said his superior, Clive Marshall was responsible for coming up with prices. The committee heard that BMC did business with foreigners who did not have proper immigration documents. Kotoko said the BMC never checked whether the person they are intending to do business with was a legal resident or not. "We were only concerned with whether the company was legally registered. We never did a background check of its representatives," Kotoko said.It emerged at the hearing that BMC has entered into a contract with a South African cattle supplier called Nicko Basson without checking whether his residence or work permit was registered under the company he represented.
