The Botswana Football Association (BFA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Kitso Kemoeng, has denied there were flaws in the process of awarding a tender for the BFA Organisational structure. This follows allegations that the process of awarding of the tender to Global Consults was flawed. The allegations surfaced in a recent letter sent to both FIFA and the Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) by some members of the BFA National Executive Committee (NEC). In the letter, disgruntled BFA NEC members accuse the BFA President and the association’s CEO of committing the association ‘to many contracts not sanctioned by the NEC.’
The NEC members have attached to the letter, some documents, including email communication between the BFA President, the CEO and the Vice Presidents, detailing how that the tender award was flawed. In one email message purported to have been sent to the BFA CEO by the BFA President Tebogo Sebego, the BFA President seemed to acknowledge that there were flaws in the tender award process. “Having reviewed the developments that led to the awarding of this tender to Global Consults, it is apparent that the process was flawed,” reads an excerpt from the email message. “It is not proper to have HR Manager undertaking the entire process particularly because there were no adverts. She opened the tenders, evaluated them and awarded all by herself. Whilst I appreciate that you (BFA CEO) were not there when the process commenced, this anomaly cannot be cured,” the email continues. “We are meeting later on as the Presidency and shall guide on the way forward. My immediate impression is that we ought to advertise the tender and cast our net evenly, then quickly undertake the evaluation and award based on that process. That will set us back another 2/3 weeks but shall be beneficial to us in terms of process and transparency,” concludes the email message. In their letter sent to both FIFA and BNSC, the members say despite his reservations about the flaws in the tender process, the BFA President ‘unilaterally’ sanctioned the project.’ Reached for comment, the BFA CEO denied any flaws in the tender awarding process.
“As far as I can say, there was a tendering process which was properly followed and a company, Global Consult, was awarded that tender. That company has long finished the job and have submitted a report, which everyone, including FIFA, was satisfied with,” Kemoeng explained. While aware of the allegations surrounding the said tender, the BFA CEO was however reluctant to divulge much as the awarding of the tender was still under investigations. “As you might be aware, the awarding of the tender has been reported to the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and FIFA by some members of the BFA NEC and as such, we cannot say anything further,” the BFA CEO said.
