{"id":34664,"date":"2023-10-10T12:53:47","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T12:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/the-big-covid-looting-scandal"},"modified":"2023-10-10T13:17:58","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T13:17:58","slug":"the-big-covid-looting-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/the-big-covid-looting-scandal","title":{"rendered":"The big Covid looting scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>An academic hired to lead the National Covid-19 Secretariat (NACOSEC) racked up a M900 000 hotel bill that the government is now struggling pay. Dr Catherine Lephoto, a Mosotho microbiologist allegedly headhunted from her base in South Africa, was also paid M120 000 per month.<\/p>\n<p>Her salary, benefits and hotel bill cost the government a staggering M1.6 million over six months. The details of her seemingly living large when other Basotho were on lockdown in their homes and others were losing their jobs were revealed during the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)\u2019s hearing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The revelations can be seen as further evidence that Nacosec was a trough for frenzied feeding rather than an institution to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>There are already reports and allegations of grand looting through rigged tenders as well as hugely inflated prices of goods and services supplied to the now defunct secretariat.<\/p>\n<p>Reatile Elias, who was NACOSEC\u2019s human resources manager, told the committee that Dr Lephoto moved into Avani Lesotho after rejecting two rented houses offered by the government.<\/p>\n<p>Elias said Dr Lephoto rejected the houses for \u201csafety and security reasons\u201d and insisted on staying at Avani Lesotho with her two children. \u201cWe had to place them at the Avani hotel because there is free Wi-Fi for the children\u2019s online classes,\u201d Elias said.<\/p>\n<p>The government however still had to pay rent for the two houses because it had already signed leases with landlords. Elias said Dr Lephoto was headhunted by Thabo Khasipe, who had been seconded from his position as commissioner general of Revenue Services Lesotho to be Nacosec\u2019s chief executive.<\/p>\n<p>He said Khasipe made a presentation to the cabinet, arguing that he urgently needed Dr Lephoto to help NACOSEC contain the Covid-19 pandemic. \u201cI was instructed to make preparations to fetch her from Johannesburg to Maseru and I did,\u201d Elias said.<\/p>\n<p>Asked by \u2018Machabana Lemphane-Letsie, the committee chairperson, if he had Khasipe\u2019s cabinet presentation, Elias insisted that his role was to follow instructions.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2019I was instructed to facilitate her coming to help combat Covid-19 and that was sufficient to me at the time,\u201d he said, adding that Khasipe\u2019s email was \u201cclear that we should provide her with accommodation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Malitabe Litabe, the Ministry of Health\u2019s director of health services, told the committee that Dr Lephoto\u2019s services and expertise were not required at NACOSEC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe needed nurses and doctors at the time and not a PhD holder,\u201d Dr Litabe said.<\/p>\n<p>She said at one point she wrote Dr Lephoto a \u201cshow cause letter\u201d after she stopped coming to work while claiming to be working remotely from South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Litabe said Dr Lephoto\u2019s response was to instruct her lawyers to demand some money from her. \u2018\u2019I then wrote her a letter to explain why she could not be expelled.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of responding, Dr Lephoto engaged her lawyers who demanded a M14 000 taxation fee from me. I also went to court to counter it,\u201d Dr Litabe said. It is not clear what Dr Litabe meant by \u201cM14 000 taxation fees\u201d and what it was for.<\/p>\n<p>Mponts\u030ceng Pama-Letsoela, the Ministry of Health\u2019s deputy human resources manager, told the committee that Dr Lephoto\u2019s hiring was \u201ca waste of money\u201d because NACOSEC needed \u201cnurses who work on the ground\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Pama-Letsoela said Dr Lephoto used to clash with some employees \u201cwho sometimes refused to give her results because she is not a nurse\u201d. She said Nacosec could have used the ministry\u2019s staff instead of \u201cwasting money\u201d by hiring Dr Lephoto.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey could have recruited someone among us and given them an allowance of at least M30 000 for risking their life and working extra hours\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCivil servants would not want a M120 000 salary and that extravagant accommodation\u201d. Committee member Montoeli Masoetsa described Dr Lephoto\u2019s salary as \u201can act of corruption\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Napo Moshoeshoe, another member of the committee, said the previous government should take the blame for allowing Dr Lephoto to stay at a hotel for six months \u201cjust so that she could have access to free Wi-Fi\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Although NACOSEC was supposed to fight Covid-19 there have been allegations that it became a vehicle for plunder, with senior officials allegedly tinkering with procurement rules to benefit themselves and their cronies. More evidence of the alleged chicanery is likely to be revealed as the PAC\u2019s hearings continue.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\">Lesotho<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. An academic hired to lead the National Covid-19 Secretariat (NACOSEC) racked up a M900 000 hotel bill that the government is now struggling pay. Dr Catherine Lephoto, a Mosotho microbiologist allegedly headhunted from her base in South Africa, was also paid M120 000 per month. Her salary, benefits and hotel bill cost [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":34662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[233,246,270,245],"class_list":["post-34664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-covid-19","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The big Covid looting scandal - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An academic hired to lead the National Covid-19 Secretariat (NACOSEC) racked up a M900 000 hotel bill that the governmen ...\" \/>\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\/the-big-covid-looting-scandal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The big Covid looting scandal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An academic hired to lead the National Covid-19 Secretariat (NACOSEC) racked up a M900 000 hotel bill that the governmen ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/the-big-covid-looting-scandal\" \/>\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=\"2023-10-10T12:53:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-10T13:17:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/10\/sm_1696931244.389476.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"849\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"642\" \/>\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=\"4 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\/the-big-covid-looting-scandal#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/the-big-covid-looting-scandal\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"The big Covid looting scandal\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-10T12:53:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-10T13:17:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/the-big-covid-looting-scandal\"},\"wordCount\":743,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/the-big-covid-looting-scandal#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/10\/sm_1696931244.389476.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"COVID-19\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/the-big-covid-looting-scandal#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/the-big-covid-looting-scandal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/the-big-covid-looting-scandal\",\"name\":\"The big Covid looting scandal - 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