Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE National Emergency Command Centre (NECC), established in March 2020 to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, blew M22 million on lunches. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this week heard how the NECC which was based at the Manthabiseng Convention Centre was spending M122 000 per day on lunch.
That expenditure was happening just as Lesotho was in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic and the government was scrounging for resources to respond to the crisis.
The M22 million was spent to provide lunch for NECC staff at the convention centre over six months. The hiring of the catering companies appears to have been dubious and prices hugely inflated.
The PAC this week demanded answers from Lilare Qhobela, the Disaster Management Authority (DMA)’s procurement officer who worked at the NECC. Qhobela said he was instructed by Lefu Manyokole, the then Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet, to hire certain catering companies.
He said the companies were Rhythm and Blues, Jabby Snack Bar, Double Joy and Lipholo Catering. PAC chairman ‘Machabana Lemphane-Letsie asked Qhobela why an institution established to deal with a national disaster ended up spending M22 million on lunch.
“Why did you do this extreme spending on food?” Lemphane-Letsie asked Qhobela. She also wanted to know why Qhobela ended up hiring companies that were charging between M180 to M200 per plate instead of the approved M100.
“You ended up spending M22 million on food and the auditor (general) wants to know why you spent that much”. Qhobela said he received a directive from Manyokole to hire companies that were charging M180 to M200 per plate.
He said Rhythm and Blues, the first company to be hired in April 2020, had flatly refused to reduce its prices from M200 to M100. Qhobela said they then maintained the M180 to M200 price range when they hired other catering companies.
He said they used selective tendering to hire the companies because it was during “the hard lockdown and it was not easy to source companies to do the job”.
“I notified Manyokole that Rhythm and Blues is expensive and he allowed me to carry on,” Qhobela said.
“It was not easy to find suppliers to help feed the Covid-19 ground workers who were based at the convention centre”.
Asked how the amount ended up getting to M22 million, Qhobela pointed at the security agencies whose officers he said were eating at the NECC in large numbers.
“I think the Lesotho Mounted Police Services, the Lesotho Defence Force and the National Security Services should be called to answer as they were the ones eating in large numbers there.
I just executed instructions as a procurement officer,” Qhobela said. He said he could not give the committee any documents to support his claims because they were seized by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) for an investigation. The NECC was later replaced by the National Covid-19 Secretariat (NACOSEC) which however did not fare any better on transparency and accountability.
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