Thursday, November 7, 2024

Marcian Concepts, victim or villian?  How did the media get it so wrong?

Type Emmanuel Moyo of Marcian Concepts on any web browser and the first entry the search engine turns up is on 29th April 2021. This is internetese for  “Emmanuel Moyo of Marcian Concepts did not exist on the world wide web until 29th April 2021.”

For those still asking Emmanuel who? Emmanuel Moyo is the Managing Director of Marcian Concepts. And the next question would probably be Marcian who?  Marcian Concepts is this obscure contractor who on 9th August 2019 in an apparent David versus Goliathesque contest went head-to-head with some of the most accomplished contractors in the country and and came up on top.

Twenty months later, on 29th April 2021 Emmanuel Moyo and Marcian Concepts were at the High Court pleading with Justice Tshegofatso Mogomotsi to overturn an order obtained by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) restraining their first payment of P32 million which they earned from the contract.

Between the two dates, black and white faded into gray. For months, the construction industry underdog who beat top dogs is his rise from rags to riches dominated newspaper headlines. The DCEC’s application to restrain Marcian Concepts’ P32 million was framed in news stories as the usual harassment of small men by the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DISS). This was after the DISS on 3rd September 2020 tipped off the DCEC that Marcian Concepts and Moyo were snake oil salesmen who had defrauded SPEDU into awarding them the lucrative tender. The DISS was convinced it had stumbled into something big: A sprawling tangle of corporate and civil service racketeering involving, SPEDU, PPADB, private lawyers and construction industry big shots in the award of the tender.

While the Media industry was rooting for the underdog who made it big against incredible odds, the DISS saw Moyo and his Marcian Concepts as pawns in the big boys dirty game. But then the DISS was dealing with its own credibility issues. It turns out most journalists approached the story with preconceived notions that the DISS was this bull in a china shop.  Any huckster selling them a dummy about how the DISS was blundering again was given leeway and forgiven a million sins.

Moyo and Marcian Concepts’ handlers apparently tapped into that zeitgeist and exploited jounalists’ confirmation bias.  Most journalist did not even consider the notion that Marcian Concepts may be the villian and DISS the hero.

Newspaper headline writers went to town vilifying the DISS and glorifying Marcian Concepts. “DIS risks yet another humiliation”, screamed one headline. “How DIS bleeds SPEDU millions every month” lamented another which was followed by an Op-Ed that “ If the government does not move swiftly to intervene, the Selibe Phikwe Economic Unit (SPEDU)’s troubled P1.2 billion tender will not only drain the public coffers but will also close down SPEDU – an arm created to coordinate investment promotion and economic diversification in the SPEDU region……. The DIS which has previously been cautioned by the courts for their interference in tenders has repeatedly denied their role in the tendering process.

Another  story with a headline: “DCEC caught in SPEDU mess” was followed by an intro that stated, “the Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) is caught in a contractual mess created by Directorate of Intelligence Services (DIS) by suspending P250 million tender between SPEDU and Marcian Concepts.”

But is Marcian Concepts really the victim and DISS the villian?

A High Court ruling by Judge Tshegofatso Mogomotsi vindicated DISS that Moyo and Marcian Concepts were quacks who forged their credentials and duped SPEDU into awarding them the quarter billion-pula contract for the construction projects aimed at revitalizing Selibe Phikwe and surrounding areas.

Justice Mogomotsi went so far as to rule 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 in a recent legal battle in which Marcian Concepts sought to overturn an order restraining their payment of P32 million which they earned from the contract under questionable circumstances.

While the media was fighting the Marcian Concept corner, the shady contractor was silent about the fact that it had worn the contract fraudulently.

Marcian Concepts brandished the E-grade certificate from PPADB that won them the lucrative contract, but could not explain how they got the certificate which is far above their pay grade.

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 DISS findings implicating a  PPADB manager in the alleged fraudulent registration. The alleged manager  has resigned while his alleged co-conspirator in 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.

In her ruling, Justice Mogomotsi accused Marcian Concepts of fraud. She said the bottom line is that the certificate used by Marcian Concepts “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.”

Justice Mogomotsi said Marcian Concepts “having been issued with a certificate for a grade it had not applied for and the committee having never met to consider the application, such circumstances and developments laid a very strong foundation for a reasonable believe that a serious crime related activity had been commited.”

Justice Mogomotsi further stated that she finds that 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.”

“ In presenting the Grade E certificate as part of its bid, the applicant 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.”

“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 forefeiture order.”

Upholding the order to impound the Marcian Concepts money she said the contractor should have foreseen the consequence 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 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 then approached the courts and obtained a default judgement order that it be paid P31, 823, 337. 71 by SPEDU for services rendered.

The DCEC intervened and obtained an order to attach the money. Marcian Concepts responded by trying to overturn the order. 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 light weight 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.

The controversial 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)

In a titanic legal battle between the DPP team marshalled by Ernest Mosate and Marcian Concepts lawyer led by veteran lawyer Unoda Mack of Bahuma Attorneys, the Court ruled that  the P32 million paid to Marcian Concepts was proceeds of crime.

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