Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) has posted profits for the past three years since 2021 following a two-year period of losses.
Answering a question in Parliament recently, the acting Minister of Lands and Agriculture, Dr Edwin Dikoloti said historically, it recorded its highest revenue of P246 million in 2023 and highest profit of P46 million in 2021. Furthermore, Dr Dikoloti stated that BVI recently attained the following quality standards: ISO 9001;2025, ISO 17025: 2027 adding that he could confirm that the company undertook a reorganisation exercise in 2023, which resulted in a new organisational structure.
He also noted that this was done with an aim to focus the company towards a high performance culture and to enhance its competitiveness edge, adding that the re-organisation had since been completed and is being implemented. Dr Dikoloti said he was aware that the BVI plant was 46 years old and that most of its facilities and equipment were now obsolete, making it inefficient and unreliable due to frequent equipment breakdown, exacerbated by the unavailability of replacement parts and limited manufacturer support for discontinued equipment.
All these, he said, had led to costly downtime, reduced production and no doubt some challenges relating to skills and experience. He thus said the re-organisation was related to this aspect of operational efficiency. Nevertheless, Dr Dikoloti noted that it was not unreasonable to conclude that following the restructuring exercise as well as the unfamiliarity with the new work environment by new employees coupled with aging and outdated equipment, had led to operational challenges and production disruptions.
The acting minister highlighted that in order to address these challenges, a five-year critical equipment maintenance and replacement plan had been put in place affirming that the institution had revised its fixed term contract policy to enhance employee retention and attraction. He further noted that all fixed term contracts, excluding those tied to project durations were now set at a five-year term and this change or migration affected all employees across the institution not just management. Additionally, he said the institution had reviewed its gratuity to be based on gross salary for staff retention, attraction and competitiveness.
“Whether or not this governance related change is appropriate or not, it is a question, which cannot be ignored.”
Dr Dikoloti acknowledged that basing on gratuity payments on fixed allowances had its own perversity and was certainly an area that would have to be managed differently, adding that it was a candidate for engagements between the shareholders and the company in seeking to improve. Also, he affirmed that the search was on to find a suitable candidate for the position of head of research and development, as it was necessary to enable the growth, sustainability and expected global competitiveness of the BVI.
However, he emphasised that the question being asked was sensitive and one that borders on confidentiality of the agreement between BVI, government and the partner Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health (BIAH) as they were obliged to protect the confidentiality of the agreement, especially on information that related to their affairs.
The acting minister was responding to a question from the MP for Tlokweng, Mr Phenyo Segokgo who had asked the minister to apprise the house on the performance of BVI and if he was aware of the operational inefficiencies on vaccine production due to obsolete equipment and inexperienced personnel, subsequent to restructuring. Furthermore, he asked about management reviewing their contracts from three to five years and grossing the gratuity on basic salary and allowances despite BVI being cash strapped and running on an overdraft.
In addition, he noted that BVI had not had a head of research position since restructuring despite it being a critical position and that the French partners would take their FMD master seeds after December 2027, which accounts to more than half the seeds used by BVI but no progress had been made by BVI to have its own master seeds used for FMD vaccine production.
Source: dailynews
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