25 Jul 2013

Former financial advisor to the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) has told the Parliamentary Select Committee that investigates the collapse of the beef industry that he gave the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Christiaan De Graaff his company profile to market him.

Submitting before the committee on July 24, Mr Silva Prasad said this happened while he was still a board member of the commission. He said he found nothing wrong by giving his company profile to the minister, whom the parastatal directly fell under, adding that he was not an employee of the abattoir but was appointed to the board.

“I never asked for a job at the BMC but I was appointed”, he added. Mr Prasad said when he submitted his proposal to the board for his company to provide financial consultancy work, he declared his interest to the board. He submitted that after being appointed financial advisor to the CEO, he advised that he could only do that through his consultancy company, of which the board accepted.

The witness denied charging the BMC exorbitant prices, saying the P3 000 per hour each day that he had initially charged was below the world market price and was reasonable because some consultancies charged above P5 000. He said he later reduced it to P1 500 per hour each day of the week following a request by the commission which was faced with financial crisis.

Mr Prasad said his company had a proven record of the services it had provided countrywide and denied that he colluded with the then former CEO, Ian Thompson to charge exorbitant prices.

This was after the members of the committee had grilled him on why he was contracted to provide financial works for the BMC without his formal contract signed. They also wondered why Mr Prasad was being paid for two hours travelling from Gaborone to Lobatse and back while those charges were not contained in contract agreement.

He was also paid P8.50 as mileage for travelling from Gaborone to Lobatse and back. Mr Prasad said during his tenure at the BMC, everything was abnormal and that was why he had to be called to provide such a service.

According to the records, Mr Prasad received over P106 million from the BMC through electronic transfer for the short period he stayed with the abattoir. He was also paid over P174 000 as consultancy allowance.  ENDS