05 Mar 2024

Parliament has been informed that the procurement process that was followed to select the development managers was transparent.

Delivering a statement in Parliament on Friday, Minister of Transport and Public Works, Mr Eric Molale dismissed allegations of corrupt behaviour against Bothakga Burrow and the Ministry of Transport and Public Works.

The statement was in response to recent allegations made in Parliament by  Maun East MP, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile against Bothakga Burrow Botswana, in which Mr Kekgonegile alleged that the company was awarded the  development manager contract because it had paid money to the Botswana Democratic Party.

“In fact one of the terms of reference for the development managers is to come up with capacity building and competence development programmes  for citizen contractors in line with the  Economic Inclusion Act,” Mr Molale said.

He said in order to address the issue of corruption and information leakages usually associated with bid evaluations, government took the decision to appoint high ranking public officers outside the Ministry of Transport and  Public Works as evaluators.  

He noted that the procurement process of development managers began  with an open and transparent pre-qualification process, where interested  local and international development managers were invited for an Express of Interests in December.

Minister Molale stated that 123 companies collected the Expression of Interest, but only 27 bidders responded and were subjected to an evaluation process, which was completed in March 2023 in line with the Public Procurement  Act.  

He said only nine bidders met the eligibility criteria and were therefore  pre-qualified for the next stage.

“It is important to emphasise that the fully auditable expression of interest process allowed for transparent, ethical, fair and competitive selection  of development managers, ensuring that the most qualified and capable  companies were shortlisted for the assignment,” he said.

Mr Molale pleaded with MPs to uphold the law and ensure that they did not  entertain making unfounded allegations, which may not only place  government procurement process into disrepute, but may also damage the reputation of the implicated business entities.

“Members of Parliament should refrain from making allegations against people who are not members of Parliament hence cannot defend themselves,  and we all know that this is prohibited by our standing orders,” he said.

He cautioned that such allegations may potentially reduce the appetite of businesses to invest in Botswana. ENDS