The mysterious circumstances under which former BOFEPUSU secretary general, Andrew Motsamai, resigned his position with immediate effect early this year have come to light following an investigation by the federation.
Without stating reasons, serving notice or handing over, Motsamai dropped the bombshell on 26 March 2012, resigning with immediate effect from the position of Executive Secretary of BOFEPUSU.
A draft report from an investigation passed to Sunday Standard reveals how government and BOFEPUSU inadvertently paid Motsamai emoluments amounting to thousands of pula while seconded to the federation. Shortly before Motsamai’s resignation, the BOFEPUSU Central Executive Committee met on 13 March 2012 and set up a task force to investigate his secondment to the federation and his payment of scarce skill allowance by government – his employer. This followed a complaint from government. The task team comprised Shandukani Hlabano, Samuel Molaodi, Melidah Mmitsi and Kagiso Watema Moreetsi.
Although Motsamai confirmed on Wednesday that he is aware of the task force set up to investigate his secondment, he denied knowledge of its findings or being approached over the issues. It is alleged that government had alerted Motsamai that he had been receiving scarce skill allowance erroneously contrary to the condition of his secondment under which he was released and, therefore, demanded repayment amounting to P81 000.
Motsamai is a lecturer at the Institute of Health Science-Gaborone. He said in an interview with Sunday Standard that he has since repaid government the whole amount claimed against him.
“There was an oversight on the part of the employer by continuing to pay me the allowance which was only discovered at the end of secondment period. This is not an unusual occurrence in the public service,” he said, adding that he never deliberately tried to defraud his employer.
He said after government notified him about the overpayment, he informed BOFEPUSU because his understanding was that if government had made the mistake of paying the scarce skill allowance then that would mean he was underpaid by BOFEPUSU, who should have covered the shortfall. In fact, the task team investigating Motsamai also found that he was underpaid by P13 665.95 being arrears for the 19 months he was engaged by the federation.
Releasing Motsamai to BOFEPUSU as Secretary General on 22 November 2010, the then Director of Public Service Management (DPSM), Festina Bakwena, said the secondment was for a period of 12 months effective 1 December 2010.The conditions were that he will cease to earn scarce skill allowance, and that in the event BOFEPUSU offers him a medical allowance such would be paid to government to avoid duplication of benefits. Unbeknown to government at the time, Motsamai had already taken up employment with BOFEPUSU since September 2010. This suggests that between September and November 2010, Motsamai was paid an additional amount to his government salary by BOFEPUSU. The task team recommended: “The Secretary General should be asked to reimburse the federation all the money that he received as a salary for the three months before secondment to the federation, that is, September 2010, October 2010 and November 2010, respectively”.
Although he was seconded by government as Secretary General, correspondence between the parties shows that Motsamai was employed on a full time basis as Executive Secretary of BOFEPUSU from 01 September 2010 drawing a salary of P300 000 per annum. He was also entitled to 15 percent car allowance and 10 percent housing, including gratuity. This breaks down to a gross salary of P31 250 per month. A statement of account from Standard Chartered bank shows that the federation paid Motsamai a total of P295 667.48 in salaries from 06 October 2010 to 26 March 2012. He was paid P14 391.19 (October/ November 2010) and P14.826.95 (December 2010-March 2012). His mandate was to set up a Secretariat for the federation, which has still not taken off to date.
The offer of employment was made by BOFEPUSU president, Masego Mogwera, who is Motsamai’s junior as BOPEU vice president. Motsamai declined to comment on the correspondence between BOFEPUSU and himself regarding the position to which the federation employed him.
Mogwera said Thursday that the Central Executive Committee is still awaiting a final report from the task team after a draft presented earlier was found to have left out some issues related to the investigation. Confirming that Motsamai had reimbursed government, she said what happened is common in the public service and no malice should be read into the whole issue.
“We carried out an investigation to correct our files and found out we may have underpaid him,” she said, adding that she could not discuss details as they await the final report from the task team.
The task team that investigated Motsamai found that he had failed to inform the federation that he had not been seconded to it prior to accepting employment with BOFEPUSU and therefore should reimburse the federation all the money received as salary for the three months before secondment. They also recommended that the issue of Motsamai failing to serve notice as is the law be brought to his attention.
