12 Apr 2018

Former Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Advocate Sadique Kebonang has denied ever benefiting from the National Petroleum Fund (NPF).

Appearing before Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee to answer for his role in the P250 million NPF scandal, Advocate Kebonang highlighted that all matters regarding the NPF were in custody of the accounting officer, who at the time was the permanent secretary to his then ministry as per the fund order prerequisite.

Advocate Kebonang said the history of the fund management clearly indicated that the fund had for years not been proprly managed, hence this could not be pinned on the shoulders of one particular individual.

During his term at the helm of the ministry, Advocate Kebonang stated that he had never met the fund management committee as it was never introduced to him, hence any decision the committee made was out of line.

He further said he was never briefed on the NPF investments, but was only briefed when there was need for petrol prices increase, during the under or over recovery process in terms of fuel margins.

Advocate Kebonang, who is also MP for Lobatse, said he was not even the minister by the time the fund manager was appointed.

He is however of the view that his predecessor could be better placed to answer as he might have approved the appointment.

He denied ever approving disbursements of funds to any institution including the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DISS).

Contrary to allegations that he directly benefited from NPF capital managed by Kgori Capitals, Advocate Kebonang stated that he was never entirely briefed by the accounting officer as to whose custody the fund management was under and was never briefed of any assets which the ministry was a custodian of.

According to the law, Advocate Kebonang explained, the fund manager was appointed by the accounting officer and approved by the minister.

He said the fund manager at that point was appointed in December 2015, 10 months prior to his appointment as the minister.

As such he did not question the appointment of the fund manager as no complaints were brought to his attention on that regard.

Advocate Kebonang told the PAC that Basis Point Capital had sub-contracted Afena Capital, now Kgori Capital to provide Fund Investment and Management Services while the former undertook the consultancy work, which entailed, among others, review of the energy sector projects and programmes.

He noted that the fee charged for the tender did not cover the fund investment and management services such as custody fees.
He however added that the account was transferred on November 7, 2017 following some worrisome accounting experiences with the previous bank, Stanbic Bank, where a misappropriation of about P2 million had been noted.

The NPF, he said was not audited for years as the financial statements were not submitted to government auditor general as there was an ongoing issue of fund mismanagement.

He said the money was however recovered from Stanbic Bank, hence a decision made later to transfer the Fund account.

He stated that he joined the ministry at a time when the closure of the BCL mine was the key issue, hence more time was invested on how best to remedy the BCL crisis.
The former minister said he was never briefed on the NPF operations, but was only made aware of a request that was consistent to the fund order by the DISS to build petroleum storage tanks, which the ministry built in 2010.

He further affirmed that he was never raided by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime personnel in respect of the NPF, but only had an interview with the DCEC officials to clear rumours aligning him to the purchase of BCL mine at the time of its liquidation. Ends