22 Jul 2013

Former Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) chief executive officer, Dr David Falepau says department of veterinary services (DVS) failed the country by taking long to apply to European Union (EU) for the removal of delisting of the national abattoir.

Giving evidence from Australia through a video conferencing on July 20, Dr Falepau said he kept feedlotters full of cattle with the hope that DVS would immediately apply for the removal of the delisting but failed to do so.

He explained that though he did not see his dismissal coming, the then vice president, Lt Gen. Mompate Merafhe, advised the Minister of Agriculture to fire him after they had a close meeting.

He said immediately after receiving his dismissal letter, he approached attorney, Mr Parks Tafa for advice and was later offered P1.9 million “to pack and go”.

He submitted that former Hub Coordinator at the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Neil Fitt, also BMC board member then, was also behind his dismissal because “he thought I was being paid more than him”. 

He explained that Mr Fitt was not a fit person in the board and that was why he wanted him removed from the board as he had realised that the appointment of board members was done fraudulently.

He stated that some of the board members did not have the interest of BMC while others did not possess skills to run the livestock industry adding that one of the first things that he wanted to do was to establish criteria to appoint board members.

Dr Falepau said he was the one who recommended that one board member, Mr Ian Thompson be made the chairperson of the board and “he did an excellent job and turned around the fortunes of the abattoir”.

He also alleged that the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Christiaan De Graff also sabotaged him because time and again, he would hold close meetings with the board and the permanent secretary in the ministry.

Dr Falepau said though he informed the Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi that BMC Francistown would slaughter cattle from the Maun Foot and Mouth (FMD) infested area, the minister made a mistake by rushing to Maun to deliver the good news without firstly consulting him.

He said there were a lot of logistics involved before the slaughtering could start, adding that people should understand that transporting cattle from a red zone passing through green zones was a major challenge. He also said DVS did not have a control system in place to transport cattle from Maun to Francistown abattoir for slaughtering.

Dr Falepau further explained that it was a collective decision between him and the board to increase cattle prices even though the abattoir was still under delisting.

He refuted allegations that he was not accountable for monies he kept on asking from government saying he asked the money to fund the cash flow of the abattoir into the EU market whilst the other monies was  for contingency plans.

He said the money was also to buy more cattle to supply the EU market and not to finance BMC loses as it was alleged. His calculations were that it took a volume of finance to slaughter 200 000 cattle in a month which need close to P100 million.

He submitted that BMC’s operational costs was between P30 to 40 million in a month and most of the people who worked closely with him, including the ministers of agriculture did not have an understanding of that.  

He said he had a plan to transform the BMC to become a viable entity but unfortunately he was fired before he could establish that plan adding that even though the BMC had access to the EU market, its operational costs were ‘very’ high by five to 10 percent.

He said that is why BMC UK subsidiary holding, which was budgeted at two and half percent was closed in order to reduce operational costs of the main abattoir. ENDS