{"id":22627,"date":"2022-12-11T12:30:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-11T12:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides"},"modified":"2022-12-11T13:11:09","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T13:11:09","slug":"dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides","title":{"rendered":"DCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>THE Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) has begun investigating a local company for allegedly supplying the Agriculture and Food Security ministry with fake pesticides last month.<\/p>\n

The ministry is said to have paid M2 million for the \u2018fake\u2019 pesticides. The company, Agripotec, had initially been awarded an M8 million tender to supply the Agriculture ministry with pesticides for the 2022 summer cropping season.<\/p>\n

It had then supplied the pesticides and received payment for its services. It was later discovered that the company had been overpaid by M2 million and instead of demanding the money back, the ministry asked Agripotec to supply more pesticides worth that amount.<\/p>\n

A government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said the company subsequently supplied what turned out to be \u201cfake\u201d pesticides.<\/p>\n

Agripotec has however vehemently rejected the allegations. It also argues that the now disputed consignment was not for pesticides but a herbicide. DCEO spokesperson, \u2018Matlhokomelo Senoko, this week confirmed that they were investigating the matter.<\/p>\n

She however, refused to divulge details, saying doing so \u201cwould jeopardise investigations which are in the early stages\u201d. Contacted for comment, the ministry\u2019s Director-Crops, \u2018Mabafokeng Mantutle, also confirmed that they were investigating the matter.<\/p>\n

She however, refused to give details. Explaining what had transpired, the government official, said, \u201cThis is not the first time that a supplier has been overpaid and asked to deliver more goods instead of returning the money\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this particular instance, the supplier was asked to deliver more pesticides and he did so about a month ago. But it was later discovered that the latest consignment was branded differently from the initial delivery.<\/p>\n

This raised eyebrows and some phone calls were made to the South African company from whom the pesticides are sourced. \u201cOfficials from that company subsequently visited Lesotho, inspected the consignment and denied that it had come from them.<\/p>\n

They even took some samples and later confirmed that the pesticides were fake. They then opened a case with the police,\u201d the official said. Meanwhile, Agripotec owner, Moeketsi Ntaote, has protested his \u201cinnocence\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is quite disturbing because I clearly presented my case,\u201d he said in an interview this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, I was willing to pay back the M2million after I was made aware that there was an overpayment.<\/p>\n

Instead, I was told that reversing the transaction was impossible and I was therefore forced to supply a herbicide which I had never supplied before. I was not even asked to prepare an invoice, but the ministry gave me one that it had prepared itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI turned to my supplier who, in turn, supplied me with what the ministry now says is a fake herbicide. How was I to know that it is fake? My supplier says the product is genuine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am surprised by all this but more than that, it is painful that I\u2019m now being investigated as a criminal when the matter should have been taken to the Commercial Court. I\u2019m not a criminal and I\u2019ve been supplying the government for several years without any problem,\u201d Mr Ntaote said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) has begun investigating a local company for allegedly supplying the Agriculture and Food Security ministry with fake pesticides last month. The ministry is said to have paid M2 million for the \u2018fake\u2019 pesticides. The company, Agripotec, had initially been awarded an M8 million tender […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":22626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,7],"tags":[233,246,415,245],"class_list":["post-22627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-head-lines","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-economic","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nDCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) has begun investigating a local company for allegedly supplyi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) has begun investigating a local company for allegedly supplyi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-11T12:30:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-11T13:11:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670749436.15.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"DCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-11T12:30:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-11T13:11:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides\"},\"wordCount\":545,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670749436.15.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"economic\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"head lines\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides\",\"name\":\"DCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670749436.15.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-11T12:30:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-11T13:11:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"THE Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) has begun investigating a local company for allegedly supplyi ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670749436.15.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670749436.15.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"DCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"DCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"DCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides - Lesotho","description":"THE Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) has begun investigating a local company for allegedly supplyi ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"DCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides","og_description":"THE Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) has begun investigating a local company for allegedly supplyi ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-12-11T12:30:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-12-11T13:11:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670749436.15.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"DCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides","datePublished":"2022-12-11T12:30:55+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-11T13:11:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides"},"wordCount":545,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670749436.15.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Lesotho","economic","Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","economy","head lines"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides","name":"DCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670749436.15.jpg","datePublished":"2022-12-11T12:30:55+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-11T13:11:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"THE Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) has begun investigating a local company for allegedly supplyi ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670749436.15.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670749436.15.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"DCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dceo-probes-supplier-over-fake-m2-million-pesticides#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DCEO Probes Supplier Over \u201cFake\u201d M2 Million Pesticides"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}