Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE National Command Centre tender panel blew a staggering M45 million on dry rations for the army and police during the Covid-19 pandemic. The figure is three times higher than what the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) believed had been spent on the dry rations.
Two weeks ago, the PAC had been told the figure was around M16 million. “We went back to check all the documentation and found out that a lot of money was squandered,” the PAC chairperson, ’Machabana Lemphane-Letsie, said.
The PAC heard that the tender panel believed that the food were expensive because it had been fortified. However, Lemphane-Letsie quickly discovered that only two panellists were the ones making decisions.
Lemphane-Letsie found that the duo allegedly conspired with an official who was responsible for sourcing the companies they preferred to buy from. She said they discovered a lot of irregularities in the tendering of food rations.
Lemphane-Letsie said deep rot was uncovered in the tendering of Morvite instant porridge (phuzamandla) with one company selling a packet of the porridge at M28 while another at M31 per 500g.
The other supplier was selling it at M55 while another was selling it for M90. The porridge normally sells at M10 in local supermarkets. Surprisingly, the company that sold the product at M90 won the tender, the PAC found.
“Whose responsibility was it to ask why one phuzamandla was M90?” Lemphane-Letsie asked. Another shocking revelation was that one packet of peanuts was sold for M50. A packet of peanuts normally costs M7 in local shops.
She said the companies that supplied peanuts costing M27 each are owned by a father and son. Mpeoa Supermarket was charging M28 while Mokhoele was charging M4 and Mafa M47 each.
“Why did you pick the highest prices as the principal secretaries?” Lemphane-Letsie said.
She said Beef Double Joy business that belongs to ’Matšoanelo Nkoefoshe was charging M26 per packet while Khomo Holdings charged M27 each. Two other companies, Sea Suppliers, charged M28 while the father and son charged M17.
“We are surprised that Khomo Holdings and Sea Suppliers belong to the same address and people with the same Poulo surnames,” she said.
“We also realise that the M45 million tenders were given to seven companies alone.
” Lemphane-Letsie said they also found out that the procurement was done by only two tender panel members.
“It also looks like you had only one person who was responsible for sourcing the suppliers. My thinking is that he only handpicked the suppliers he had an interest in,” she said.
Lemphane-Letsie said they also unearthed that the person by the surname of Selai who was responsible for sourcing the suppliers had recently died. She said two officials, Ramashamole and Moerane, took over and took the matter to the tender panel.
“But you as a panel allowed this procurement to pass as fishy as it was,” Lemphane-Letsie said.
“The entire panel allowed a small packet of peanuts to be bought for M50 each,” she said.
“What was your responsibility when you saw this dubious procurement of food rations?”
The former Cabinet principal secretary who was a tender panel chairperson, ’Malikonelo Hlasoa, told the committee that she was only employed in the office until October 1, 2020.
Hlasoa said she could only answer to the issues that happened during the six months that she was deployed there. She also told the committee that she needed some documentation from the cabinet office to corroborate her response.
But she was told that the documentation was seized by the DCEO. Hlasoa denied that the procurement approval was done by only two members of the panel.
Before any meeting, they had to meet and establish a quorum. “I chaired meetings for six months and I do not recall seeing something like this,” Hlasoa said.
However, Lemphane-Letsie told her that they have evidence that the procurement was done by her. Hlasoa denied that procurement was overseen by only two panellists.
Lemphane-Letsie then put it to her that during her chairmanship, one supplier sold a packet of small peanuts for M50. She said on the day of supply, the supplier wrote a letter asking to raise the price since they had made a miscalculation and Hlasoa allowed it.
Hlasoa said she did not remember the incident and would need to go back to check documents to remind herself what happened. Panellist Seth Putsoane said he used to chair the meetings in the absence of the chairman.
Lemphane-Letsie asked how they approved the M50 small packet of peanuts. “When I was chairing the meeting the panel secretariat used to tell us that it was fortified,” Putsoane said.
He said they asked during their meetings why the dry ration was extremely expensive. “I was asked if I had ever eaten the army biscuits as they are not normal like the ones sold at the supermarkets,” he said.
He told the committee that the secretariat at the time told them that they were buying what the army wanted. “We were told that they came from a special company in South Africa,” Putsoane said.
Lemphane-Letsie said one company was selling one packet for M47.22 cents, the other for M7.88 cents. Even here you decided to pick the expensive one, she asked.
She argued that it is not true that the rations were bought in South Africa since the borders were closed. “That beef and fish was still the one you could buy at a local supermarket,” Lemphane-Letsie said.
Putsoane told the committee that he had since realised that the suppliers were not from South Africa. “The way we were told was that the supplies are not found anywhere in Lesotho,” he said.
He said the tender panel had no interest in the procurement process. “We were told that the peanuts and everything had been fortified for the army,” Putsoane said.
“We admit that the tender panel made mistakes.”
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