Africa-Press – Botswana. PPRA has ordered cancellation of a multimillion-pula education tender for irregularities, lack of transparency and risks in the procurement process involving Emeritus Training Academy Botswana.
The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) has called out the Ministry of Child Welfare and Basic Education for failing to follow procurement procedures in the awarding of a P662 million e-learning tender.
Following an investigation, PPRA concluded that the procurement process was marred by serious irregularities, including lack of transparency, insufficient justification for direct procurement, and failure to follow prescribed procedures.
Risks and ambiguities
The Authority also flagged significant risks and ambiguities in the bid submitted by Emeritus Training Academy Botswana (Pty) Ltd, raising concerns about its capacity to deliver.
Key findings included the ministry’s failure to secure funding before initiating the procurement, failure to provide justification for using direct procurement, failure to include mandatory documentation such as beneficial ownership forms and failure to ensure fairness, transparency and scope sufficiency in the procurement process.
Fair competition
Additionally, Emeritus Training Academy Botswana was found to have potentially misrepresented critical information, placing it in possible breach of the Code of Conduct for Contractors.
PPRA consequently ordered the ministry to cancel the tender, re-tender the project competitively and strengthen oversight by ensuring proper risk management, fair competition, and clear accountability.
Meanwhile, Emeritus has been referred for possible suspension and blacklisting, pending further investigation.
No justification
“The ministry has not provided adequate justification for the use of direct procurement as prescribed in Regulation 20 of the Public Procurement Regulations,” said PPRA.
“Specifically, none of the conditions prescribed under Regulation 20 are met, and the convenience of the encounter of the benchmarking team with Emeritus Training Academy (Pty) Ltd (South Africa) does not qualify as justification for the direct procurement.
Significant gaps
“The bid by Emeritus Training Academy Botswana (Pty) Ltd company has significant gaps and areas of ambiguity which pose as risk areas for uncontrolled expenditure that has the potential to exceed the current bid price during implementation.
“Emeritus Training Academy Botswana (Pty) Ltd, in the bid submission, has not provided verification of its experience, nor has it substantiated its claim that it has the capacity to implement the required services.”
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