The Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) has cornered Permanent Secretary to the President, Carter Morupisi to account for his multi million Pula properties in Durban, South Africa.
After impounding his land cruiser double cab last week, DCEC attention has now shifted attention to an up-market property in Durban that was built for over P5million.
Documents in possession of the DCEC which have been passed to the Sunday Standard show that Morupisi contributed only P40 000 towards the construction of the property but has been drawing disproportionately high amounts from the proceeds of the same property registered under the name Manor Gardens.
While admitting that DCEC has impounded a land cruiser, Morupisi has denied any wrong doing.
He has said the Land Cruiser belonged to his wife and was bought as a second hand.
According to a DCEC source the crime busting agency does not buy Morupisi’s story and wants him to render an account on how he managed to source the P5 million that was used to build the Durban up-market properties.
They also want him to show and prove his monthly commitment to repay the P5 million from his existing and known income as a public official.
Sunday Standard has learnt that the properties were built with money from Bona Life which was in part owned by asset management firm, CMB.
DCEC wants to establish why Bona Life spent P5 million on the construction of an up-market in a prestigious Durban suburb and in the end allow the Title Deed to be held in favour of somebody else.
While Morupisi has strenuously denied any commercial links with CMB, the DCEC investigators have established uncanny coincidences and have started joining the dots which are forming a sinister picture that they are unwilling to dismiss as innocent.
A source at DCEC says they are aware that the Chief Executive of CMB Rapula Okaile has previously worked with Morupisi as private secretary during the duo’s days DPSM (Directorate of Public Service Management) where Morupisi was Director before becoming a PSP.
DCEC investigators are also looking into the Blue Book and chassis number details of a Toyota Land Cruiser bought by Okaile in Brackenhurst, Durban which they say has a paper trail pointing in the direction of Morupisi.
The Land cruiser was bought for just less than P700 000.
Sunday Standard has also seen the copy of the car’s invoice.
Meantime the investigations against Morupisi are adding pressure on the beleaguered CMB and also on Bona Life.
Parallel investigations have revealed that CMB had gone outside their mandate when they bought equity in the publicly listed tourism outfit, Wilderness Safaris.
The same questions are being raised about the CMB decision to buy shares at the Johannesburg Stock exchange.
According to the CMB mandate given them by Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund, the asset firm was only confined to invest in private equities.
Questions are being asked also about the ethical propriety of CMB investments an airline in Zambia, and also a university that never materialised.
BPOPF is worried that in companies where they invested the money, some CMB executives also became shareholders, a thing that goes against the BPOPF rule book.
CMB is under pressure to account for the P850 million in annuities that an audit has exposed as missing.
The same audit has uncovered a further P457 million in private equities still to be accounted for.
DCEC are interested in establishing whether any links existed between Morupisi and CMD, and if so what the nature of links were and also if CMB was able to enjoy and immunity and political protection from such links given the fact that Morupisi is not only head of the public service and also cabinet secretary but was until recently the Chairman of the BPOPF Board of trustees.
Speaking to our sister paper midweek, Morupisi denied any wrong doing. He said there was a coordinated political witch-hunt against him. He added that he had nothing to hide.
