THE secretary general of the Lesotho Red Cross Society (LRCS), Sechaba Mokhameleli, says the board decided to award the M2.2 million contract without a tender process. Mokhameleli who was acting secretary general when the contract was awarded to Keyha Trading and Projects (Pty) Ltd, a company owned by local businessman Abner Moteane, said his only role was to implement the decision.
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He was responding to allegations that the LRCS fired two senior managers after they opposed the board‘s decision to award the contract without following tender procedures.
Finance Director, Teboho Nkoane, and the Human Resources Manager, Moeketsi Ntlamelle, were fired in July after a protracted disciplinary hearing.
“The discussion that led to this decision is in the meeting’s minutes and I, as the secretary general answerable directly to the board, had to do as the board had directed,” Mokhameleli said.
“The Financial Director and HR could not rightly refuse to carry out my instruction as I did not and could not refuse to carry out the instructions of the board.”
“I instructed them to sign the document giving effect to the decision of the board, the body that has overall control of the Lesotho Red Cross Society.”
He said if they had followed instructions and signed the document they would be comfortable telling the police that they were innocent if there would be suspicion of corruption.
“They would simply say we obeyed the authorities of this society,” he said.
Mokhameleli said the Red Cross, before he was appointed the secretary general, decided to conduct its properties development feasibility study with a plan to build houses for rental.
He said they asked five different construction consultants to do the job but they refused, saying they could not do the job free. Only Keyha agreed to do the job and they signed the MOU with the board.
He said the feasibility study, which Keyha did free, could have cost the society about M500 000.
The MOU stipulated that Keyha would be given priority when there is a construction project, Mokhameleli said.
He said the current board was unaware that there was an MOU between the society and Keyha when it advertised the tender.
He said Moteane wrote the Red Cross president, Harry Nkhetše, bringing his attention to the provision of the MOU and saying he had a right to be given priority.
“The president read the letter in the board meeting and we took about four hours discussing this, until the board resolved that in order to avoid possible lawsuits we should engage Moteane,” he said.
He said after this the advert was withheld but later cancelled for good when the board had satisfied itself that Keyha should be given first priority.
“A lot of construction companies that had bought tender documents had to be refunded because the board had decided to give priority to Moteane.”
He said after this Nkhetše verbally instructed the management to implement the decision “but I advised him to do it in writing and he indeed directed me in writing”.
He said when the project was initiated and had to pass before Ntlamelle to sign its approval, he refused, saying he could not be involved in corruption.
“I asked him to refuse in writing and he did so, citing the same reasons,” he said.
“I asked the Finance Director to write his refusal too and he told me that he had similar reasons with the admin,” he said, adding that Ntlamelle was in charge of administration.
Mokhameleli said Nkoane and Ntlamelle were well aware of the reasons upon which the board had reached its decision.
Staff Reporter
