A quack building contractor with forged credential has duped SPEDU into awarding them a quarter billion tender for construction projects aimed at revitalizing Selibe – Phikwe and surrounding area.
The project is part of the P1.2 billion SPEDU Industrial and Urban Agriculture Land Service project, a 3, 500-job creation initiative that President Mokgweetsi Masisi mentioned in his November 2020 State of the Nation Address (SONA).
High Court judge Tshegofatso Mogomotsi has ruled that a “serious crime” was committed in the way Marcian Concepts acquired the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Board (PPADB) Grade E certificate it used to clinch the multi million pula contract.
This emerged during a recent legal battle in which Marcian Concepts sought to overturn an order restraining their payment of P32 million obtained by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) through the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP).
The case is a forerunner to an ongoing DCEC investigation into a suspected sprawling tangle of corporate and civil service racketeering involving, SPEDU, PPADB, private lawyers and construction industry big shots in the award of the tender. It is a case with many questions and sub-plots suggesting a web of corruption.
Marcian Concepts’ fraudulent E-grade certificate is the smoking gun in the DCEC investigations that PPADB may be implicated in the web of corporate and civil service corruption.
The contractor is unable to explain how he got the certificate.
It has emerged from the Court records that Marcian Concepts never applied for the E-grade certificate; contrary to the date on the certificate indicating when it was awarded, the PPADB board never sat on that date to consider and award the certificate. It has farther emerged that the PPADB records were falsified to indicate the meeting was held.
It has also emerged that the PPADB data base was fiddled with and the Marcian Concepts records entered into their Integrated Procurement Management Systems (IPMS).
This is consistent with the DIS and DCEC findings implicating a PPADB manager in the alleged fraudulent registration. The alleged manager has resigned while his alleged co-conspirator is being investigated. The hard drives used in the registration are reported missing and PPADB is believed to have filed a theft report of the missing hard drives with the Botswana Police Service.
Justice Mogomotsi accused Marcian Concepts of fraud in using the fraudulent E- grade certificate to clinch the SPEDU contract.
“The bottom line is that what was used was fraudulent and whoever received that which he had not applied for, also acted fraudulently and whomsoever presented the fraudulently obtained purported certificate also acted fraudulently.”
She further stated that Marcian Concepts, “having been issued with a certificate for a grade it had not applied for and the PPADB committee having never met to consider the application, such circumstances and developments laid a very strong foundation for a reasonable belief that a serious crime related activity had been committed.”
Justice Mogomotsi said she found Marcian Concepts’ “ actions in not only retaining but, proceeding to present and use that which it had not applied for add credence and fortify the reasonableness of the prescribed investigator’s belief that a serious crime related activity has been committed.”
She said “ In presenting the Grade E certificate as part of its bid” Marcian Concepts “falsely misrepresented itself to have applied, to have been considered and to have been found a capable and befitting person to be awarded a certificate for Grade E works, when in fact it knew that, it had never applied and was not entitled to use same given circumstances under which such was issued.”
Endorsing the forfeiture of Marcian Concepts P32 million, Justice Mogomotsi said, “in submitting and in that regard uttering the Grade E certificate which was never sought but issued nonetheless, constituted a serious crime related activity and whatever proceeds were earned or derived as a result constituted a proceed and/ or instrument of crime and consequently liable for attachment through a restraint and forfeiture order.”
She said Marcian Concepts should “have foreseen the consequences of its actions including the current developments and turn of events when it took conscious and deliberate steps in falsely representing to SPEDU that it met all the requirements necessary to bid and be awarded the tender.”
Documents passed to the Sunday Standard suggest that this is the case that cost former SPEDU CEO, Mokubung Mokubung his job.
The former SPEDU boss was taken to task for ignoring a letter from his boss, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services Bonolo Khumotaka dated 4th September 2020.
Khumotaka was relaying Minister Kefentse Mzwinila’s instruction that Mokubung should suspend a quarter billion Pula tender which SPEDU had awarded to an obscure building contractor called Marcian Concepts under questionable circumstances.
Mokubung tried to push the hot button issue to the SPEDU board. The board immediately pushed back. On 15th September, board Chairman Obonetse Mothelesi wrote to Mokubung, throwing the embattled CEO under the bus for allegedly trying to use the board to cover for his failure to carry out the minister’s instruction.
Meanwhile, Marcian Concepts was hard at work setting up office, fencing the site and buying a fleet of vehicles for the P230, 695, 655.92 Design and Build of Phase One infrastructure in Bolelanoto and Senwelo Industrial Sites, Selibe-Phikwe.
Six months and P31 million later, Mokubung exited the SPEDU corner office under a cloud, accused of failing to carry out lawful instructions.
Marcian Concepts subsequently approached the courts and obtained an order that it be paid P31, 823, 337. 71 by SPEDU for services rendered.
A number of difficult questions arose on how Marcian Concepts was awarded the multi-million Pula tender in the first place.
A Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) company search turned up information that Marcian Concepts was incorporated on 30th October 2013 and re-registered on 8th July 2019 around the time the tender was being put together. Its sole director and shareholder, Emmanuel Moyo assumed ownership of the company on 4th July 2019.
As Marcian Concepts approached the courts, the DCEC initiated investigations into allegations that the evaluation of the tender may have been rigged because the company has no prior experience on such projects; it is not registered for the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) although it filled out an EDD form’ and had no plant and equipment which was inconsistent with its classification as an E- grade company. Other bidders were disqualified on the basis of some of the above deficiencies.
The questionable classification of Marcian Concepts as an E-grade company took the DCEC to the PPADB where the registration paper trail has allegedly been destroyed.
Marcian Concepts, which is a construction green horn is believed to be fronting for a bigger contractor which has decided to remain in the shadows. The DCEC is reported to be following the money trail, hoping it will lead them to the invisible hand behind the alleged sprawling corruption. Unconfirmed reports claimed that the account numbers assigned in the documents of the controversial tender allegedly do not belong to Marcian Concepts and are believed to be leading to the puppet master.
READ INDEPTH FOR DETAILS