21 Jul 2020

The role played by former Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF) board chairperson, Carter Morupisi in appointing Capital Management Botswana (CMB) to administer finances of the fund, remained a bone of contention at the Gaborone High Court on July 17.

Morupisi, also the former Permanent Secretary to the President, is facing charges of abuse of office, receiving a bribe and money laundering, with the particulars of the offence detailed on the charge sheet being that on November 11 2014, as BPOPF board chairperson, acting without the board’s authority signed a contract authorising CMB to administer BPOPF funds.

During the ongoing trial before high court’s Justice Christopher Gabanagae, the prosecution and the defence posed questions to state witnesses, Attorney Mboki Chilisa and current BPOPF acting CEO, Moemedi Malindah, to ascertain Morupisi’s role in the pension fund’s appointment of CMB.

Defence attorney Busang Manewe in cross examining both Chilisa and Malindah, tried to drive home the point that the decision to appoint CMB was a collective decision that was taken by the board of trustees, which became binding on the CEO and management of the pension fund to implement, while the defence tried to pin the appointment on Morupisi.

Chilisa, who in 2014 represented the five trade unions that constituted the Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU), revealed that the unions had challenged the composition of the BPOPF board, which is structurally constituted by representatives of the employer, the government, as well as the employees represented by their unions.

The matter was settled by a  October 7 2014 ruling made by high court’s judge Justice Tshepo Motswagole, and the public sector unions followed the due process of selecting trustees to sit on the board, Chilisa revealed.

After the employer trustees, including Morupisi through their legal representatives Collins and Newman, queried the validity of that union selection process, a second course of selecting employee representatives was undertaken by the BOFEPUSU unions, leading to a November 24 2014 settlement agreement on the new board of trustees.

State counsel, Priscilla Israel pointed out that when this settlement agreement took place on November 24 2014, it was after Morupisi signed the agreement that appointed CMB, which thus took effect without the presence of employee trustees sitting on the BPOPF board.

Malindah, currently the acting BPOPF CEO, when giving evidence of the period when he was the BPOPF Portfolio and Investment director, said Morupisi and CMB directors, Tim Marsland and Rapula Okaile signed the contract on November 11, 2014 at the BPOPF head office in Gaborone.

Cross examined by Manewe, Malindah revealed that three companies, Venture Partners Botswana, African Alliance and CMB had succeeded in their bidding for the ‘general partner’ role, and CMB had scored more than 70 per cent, including during the due diligence stage.

Malindah confirmed that the BPOPF Finance and Investment committee he headed recommended that CMB be awarded a conditional offer upon completion of the legal process. Board meetings of August 21 and 22 as well as September 4 in 2014 discussed the issue then took a resolution to recommend the appointment of CMB pending the fulfillment of the legal requirements.

While his legal team made reference to the decision being taken in the absence of Morupisi, the prosecution pointed out that Morupisi had been present at the two August meetings and had only missed the September 4, 2014 board meeting.

Attempts by Manewe to present to court minutes of the 21 and 22 August BPOPF board meetings were objected to by the state, questioning their validity as they were not dated nor signed, with Justice Gabanagae also pondering why the defence had not brought up those minutes before as part of their responding affidavit.

Malindah also told the court that employer and employee representatives make up a quorum of the BPOPF board of trustees, but in the absence of employee representatives, the CMB resolution was taken leading to the November 11, 2014 signing ceremony.

In their general partner role, CMB would identify an investment opportunity for the pension fund, then make a request for funds to be released by the pension fund for the purpose of investment.

After the signing of the agreement between BPOPF and CMB, six transactions were signed, including P150 million investment in Wilderness Holdings, P57.5million investment in Bramer Life (now BONA Life), P50 million in Cell City and P7.5 million to set up management fees. The case proceeds on July 27, 28 and 30. ENDS