A cabinet minister’s directive on an issue that has cost implications running into millions of pula does not seem like something SPEDU Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mokubung Mokubung would ordinarily ignore.So, naturally, questions are being asked on why he did not act on 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 has awarded to an obscure building contractor called Marcian Concepts under questionable circumstances.
The Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) will be asking the same niggling question as it investigates 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. The issue was reported to the DCEC by the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) on 3rd September 2020.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 this week, accused of failing to carry out lawful instructions. The High Court is also expected to revisit the nagging question of why Mokubung did not carry out the minister’s instruction. This follows a decision by Marcian Concepts to approach the courts demanding P31, 823, 337. 71 from SPEDU for services rendered.
ALLEGED WEB OF CORRUPTION
Mokubung will also face a number of difficult questions from the DCEC 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.
The DCEC is investigating allegations that the evaluation of the tender may have been rigged because Marcian Concepts has no prior experience on such projects; the company 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 takes the DCEC to the PPADB where the registration paper trail has allegedly been destroyed. A PPADB manager who is implicated in the alleged fraudulent registration of Marcian Concepts as an E-grade company has resigned while his alleged co-conspirator in being investigated. The hard drives used in the registration are reported missing and PPADB is expected to file a theft of the missing hard drives with the Botswana Police Service.
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 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 DCEC is expected to follow the money trail, hoping it will lead them to the invisible hand behind the alleged sprawling corruption. Indications are that the big fishes behind the contract are trying to sponsor a media campaign to reframe the narrative as an attempt by the DIS boss Peter Magosi to meddle in construction tenders.
Although the letter from Permanent Secretary in in the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services Bonolo Khumotaka instructing SPEDU to halt the project is dated 4th September 2020, recent media reports claimed that at a meeting on February 23, 2021 the DIS boss directed that the tender must be cancelled with immediate effect.
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).
