The Zambian national who built President Ian Khama’s controversial private airstrip at Mosu has been given a number of construction contracts by the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) running into more than 100 million Pula without going through a public tender process ÔÇô Sunday Standard investigations have revealed. These revelations implicate President Khama’s in corruption allegations against DIS and its Director General Isaac Kgosi which have been the subject of a Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) investigations.
The Zambian builder, known only as Mr Jerry made news headlines last year when he was paraded on national television in a campaign by the Office of the President to quash reports that the airstrip was constructed at taxpayers’ expense. In an investigation by Sunday Standard Jerry first turns up in 1998 when he was contracted to complete DIS Director General Isaac Kgosi’s private mansion in Phakalane Estates.
Then, he was only a small time builder who had not registered a company. Between 1998, when Kgosi became Director General of DIS and now, Mr. Jerry has become a multi-million pula contractor, with a company, Power Force (Pty) Ltd, that is the preferred contractor of the DIS. Power Force was given the contract to build the DIS Criminal Investigation Offices in Sebele through a single sourcing tender. The company was also given the contract to build the DIS storage facility next to the Botswana Power Corporation head office, and the DIS contract to build the District Commissioner’s house in Serowe. Both projects were also awarded through direct single tender process. Curiously, the other director of Power Force is Mr. Teezar Seduke whose other companies, Defence Concepts Pty (Ltd) and Roseta Enterprises have also been given DIS contracts running into hundreds of millions of Pulas without going through a public tender.
Sources inside the DIS have revealed that Defence Concepts and Roseta Enterprises have had a number of contracts with DIS and the procurement process was through direct single tender process. Mr Jerry has also been linked to the construction of DIS Director General’s private farm house in Sentlhane farms. Sunday Standard investigations have turned up information that Kgosi’s farm in Sentlhane was bought for P750, 000, 00 . Botswana National Front President, Duma Boko wrote to the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) charging that Defence Concepts, Roseta Enterprises and Power Force did business and jobs for Isaac Kgosi in his personal capacity and have now become the only ones contracted to do work for the DIS.
“These somewhat interlinked companies are intimately associated with the director and receive preferential treatment from the DIS and are engaged to undertake jobs without any open tendering,” Boko stated is his letter to the DCEC. The BNF President accused the DCEC of spending public resources investigating these issues and prior to interviewing the DIS director for the second time, the investigation came to a halt or has been put off.
Sunday Standard was not able to establish if there had been any instructions to the DCEC to stop the investigations, however, around that time President Khama moved swiftly and removed both the DCEC and the DIS from the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security and placed them under the Office of the President.
