Open Letter to Minister Douglas Letsholathebe

Greetings sir. I hope this letter finds you in good health considering your busy schedule which I believe can have negative impact on ones wellbeing.

I would like to remain anonymous for I fear of victimization. Sir there is rot at Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA), which I hoped by now you would have noticed. Maybe BQA is not in your priority list due to your demanding schedule.

1. BQA  is mandated to assist Batswana with regard to ensuring that,  what is delivered/offered as training programmes at both regular Education Training providers (ETPS), who offer credit bearing programmes, which are also called long programmes, that lead to a Qualification and Training Consultancies (they are also ETPs according to the Act) which offer Non Credit bearing programmes, which are also called short programmes.
2. BQA is also mandated to Evaluate qualifications so that they can establish their authenticity from the country of origin and to place them on the appropriate level in National Credit and Qualifications Framework (NCQF) (Botswana Framework)

These are the two (2) main core mandates of BQA. Unfortunately, as we speak, we are doing none of the above. In fact, we just come to work and do nothing, not because there is nothing to do, but because of the leadership, particularly the CEO (Ms Botsalano Mosimakoko) does not care about the core mandate of BQA, worse still , she doesn’t want to learn. The CEO has been employed for the last 13 months, but not once has she called general staff meeting to tell us about her road plan and Vision with regard to the organisation and or  improving business of  BQA. Unfortunately, since the day she reported for work, she was just in a fighting mood. She was fighting anybody because she was the CEO. Threatening people with dismissal. A lot of employees who have encountered her, either in her office, the corridors, the kitchenette, etc will attest to that

Six (6) months in the office she fired 19 officers for no reason. I’m saying for no reason because they were not given any reason why their contracts were not renewed despite their good performance. These officers were unionized, therefore they engaged the Union to intervene, she arrogantly told the union representative that she used her discretion as the CEO in firing these employees. That’s how powerful she is.

We are reliably informed that the CEO is close to the leadership of the country, who are said to have instructed the Board to employ her from Canada, where she was working for some NGO as a Research officer.

The CEO has stopped all the processing of applications for both ETPs and individuals who have submitted for qualifications evaluation without informing the staff the reasons behind this. Unfortunately, when clients enquire, they enquire from us officers, and we must lie to them that there is backlog. The backlog is now there because we are receiving applications and not processing them

Apparently the reason why she has stopped us from processing these applications is because she has told her executive that she does not like some of the programmes being accredited. The CEO feels so powerful that if she does not like something in the act, she will do as she wishes disregarding the act. That is what is happening now.

BQA published a press release after the suspension of the Deputy CEO, 3 Directors, 2 Managers ( which we are still the dark, as for the reasons behind the suspension of half the exco team) that their suspension will not in anyway affect Business Continuity. That is not true as there has been nothing done to date with regard to Business. The Management Quality Assurance Committee (MQAC) has never met for months. This is the committee responsible for approving accreditation of ETPs and Training programmes. Unfortunately clients are just in the dark, with regard to when they will get response from BQA. Yet there is a functional Board in place. This is misleading the nation, particularly the BQA clients. Officers without supervisory experience had been appointed to act as Directors. The organisation is on auto pilot

The staff morale at BQA is at its lowest. People are scared to talk about these concerns because of fear of being dismissed. One wonders what the purpose of is the BQA board. Its just there to claim sting allowances. As staff, we used to be furnished with Board resolutions after every Board meeting. Since the arrival of the new CEO, that has since stopped. We just come to work because we have bills to pay. Several officers have since resigned because of the negative atmosphere in this organisation.

I am just writing this letter because we feel that the things happening at BQA, as a public entity should be known. I am also aware that you can either choose to act on these allegations or ignore them.

Thank you