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May 12, 2018

2 min read

WASCO CEO quizzed by PAC on ‘dubious’ tender

WASCO CEO quizzed by PAC on ‘dubious’ tender

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MASERU – It became a long day for the Chief Executive of Water and Sewerage Company (WASCO) Mr. Lehlohonolo Manamolela before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of parliament this week after he was quizzed by MPs over what they dubbed a seemingly “dubious” tender award. The PAC accused Mr. Manamolela of flouting tender procedures and regulations, disregarding the decision of the tender committee and the advice of the WASCO consultant when awarding a tender to a Chinese-owned company, Unique Pty Ltd, which was not part of the companies that initially tendered for the project. In his submission, Mr. Manamolela argued that he awarded the tender to Unique Company based on the interests of WASCO. According to him, this was after he realised that other companies were charging as much as double the figures that Unique was charging. He said despite the consultant’s bad report about Unique, the company was not on the blacklist of businesses that can’t engage with the government. The PAC, however, warned Mr. Manamolela that if it could be discovered, through documented evidence, that he provided false information to the committee on why and how he awarded the tender, serious legal action would have to be taken against him. However, the PAC Chairperson, Selibe Mochoboroane was not convinced by Mr. Manamolela's submission that he had fairly awarded the tender to the Unique for the project in Botha Bothe and Leribe districts. He said he suspected that there was something fishy about the awarding of the tender, which he alleged the WASCO CEO awarded only after he was visited and had a meeting with a Chinese man only known as Yung at around 19h00 in his office. Mr. Mochoboroane said he suspected that the Chinese man bribed, beat or intimidated the CEO because Mr. Manamolela award the tender to Unique against the advice of the consultant that was paid over M40 million for its work after his meeting with the Yung. The consultant had said Unique Company had a poor track record based on the previous work it carried out in areas such Semonkong, Roma and Maseru where pipes were found to be leaking when Unique had completed those projects. Mochoboroane also marvelled the fact that the CEO had reduced the scope of the project of water supply from five districts of Botha Bothe, Leribe, Mafeteng, Mohale's Hoek, and Qacha's Nek to two districts of Botha Bothe and Leribe despite the partners and the government having funded all the projects. Lena

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