By Staff Reporter
The students accommodated at the hostel of Nthamaha Combined High School at Ketane, in the Mohale’s Hoek district are forced to bathe in cold water due to a nonfunctional solar energy equipment which is part of substandard maintenance work.
The solar energy facility was installed at the school for the purpose of heating water used by students accommodated at the hostel.
Big solar panels can be seen on the roof top of the kitchen/dining hall but are not useful as the battery does not provide any power.
Other equipment installed at the school includes of a fridge, freezer, three cooking gas stoves, and sinks.
But these items lie idling as they are not in use.
The water supply to this hostel and the school is said to be sufficient to cater for the learning facility. The supply is sourced from the Ha Nthamaha water source constructed by Duo Construction company.
But controversy has mired the school’s maintenance works at the kitchen/dining hall and the construction of water reticulation by the Education Facilities Unit (EFU) under the ministry of education and training.
The ministry is still reeling from lost monies after payments were made for incomplete maintenance works at the school in 2012. It has also emerged that the furniture installed did not meet the required standards.
For instance, it was specified that an electric stainless steel refrigerator required was a double-door appliance for use in the kitchen and multipurpose hall. But the one supplied was not stainless steel but the type used in liquor stores.
According to the information in possession of this publication, an amount of M384 000 was paid out by the ministry under the pretext that the correct catering equipment had been supplied and installed in the kitchen/dining hall, along with allegedly false pictures attached to the certificate for works done.
The beneficiary was Duo Construction which was claimed to have completed the works as required, leading to a total payment of M2 093,041 which was witnessed by EFU supervisor Liteboho Khoali.
The certificate of maintenance completion for the kitchen/dining hall maintenance was signed by Khoali.
In that certificate she said the entire contract had gone for final inspection, indicating that such final inspection was done on March 3 2013.
Prior to the inspection, she claimed in her report, she had conducted a site visit on March 16 2012 during which she rated works done on kitchen/dining hall as 95 percent.
In a final claim for kitchen maintenance, the construction company said the work done amounted to M558,482.30. The payment included costs on additional site-works that related to the kitchen/dining hall. It was signed by Khoali who appeared to be the construction supervisor.
But in the final account the total amount claimed in addition to what appeared as works on water construction infrastructure was M2.093,041.
The account form dated March 6 2013 was signed on the same day that the certificate for maintenance completion was issued.
The government had approved a quotation of M250 000 for water supply and reticulation for the kitchen/dining hall at the school.
This led to Khoali being charged by EFU management who instituted a disciplinary action against her.
In a letter dated May 7 2018 inviting Khoali to a disciplinary inquiry the EFU supervisor ‘Malobiane Lesela-Pitso informed her of such action being taken against her on the grounds that “you in your capacity as an inspector of works…unlawfully, intentionally and knowingly made a false, misleading and inaccurate statement to your superiors by saying that an incomplete building is complete.”
Lesela-Pitso concluded: “As a result of which the ministry (of education and training) paid full and final payment for the incomplete building.”
During the hearing she was found guilty by her superiors and was only warned not to commit such an offence again.
Dissatisfied with the disciplinary hearing, the then director of EFU Komane Motaba appealed the ruling saying it would damage the integrity of the ministry and open up a can of worms for misappropriation of public funds.
The appeal did not see the light of day as Khoali was reinstated back into office.
On June 3 2019 the then principal secretary for higher education Dr Thabiso Lebese wrote to Khoali: “This letter serves to recall you to duty with immediate effective (sic) notwithstanding an appeal that has been filed by your supervisor following the outcome of the disciplinary hearing against yourself.”
The letter was copied to the then EFU director Motaba who was eventually transferred to the teaching service department as director.
When contacted for comment Motaba confirmed that the government lost monies due to misleading information given by Khoali about ‘works carried out at the school’s infrastructure’.
He told theReporter that the EFU authorities visited the school for inspection of works purported to have been completed. But, he added, such works were not completed and the type of furniture supplied was not up to the required standard.
He also confirmed that at the disciplinary hearing, Khoali only got away with a warning and that he was not satisfied with the ruling, prompting his office to lodge an appeal.
For his part Lebese declined to comment in details only saying he did go to Ketane and played his part in the matter. He asked this journalist to follow-up on the matter with the current principal secretary Dr Lira Khama, since he (Lebese) had left office.
Although he said the issue had been resolved, the principal secretary for basic education Dr Lira Khama could not say how the matter was resolved and promised to ‘find out from the EFU’. He has since not gotten back to us.
At one stage, Khoali wrote to the education ministry’s chief accounting officer seeking protection from Motaba. She said she had been portrayed as having misled parliaments’ Public Accounts Committee at which she testified about the developments at the school. She denied any corrupt activities, insisting the works had been completed on the building. During her appearance, she was fined M1 000 for misleading parliament.
Khoali was unavailable for comment on Wednesday when the paper contacted her office this week.
But the acting principal at the school Puleng Ntee said the water supply was sufficient to cater for the hostel from the village water source. She did not know who carried out the maintenance works or the water supply reticulation.
“I don’t know who was assigned as the contractor. We just accepted the building and the furniture and we are not aware if it is incomplete or otherwise. But the water supply is satisfactory, except that sometimes herdboys damage the pipes,” she told this publication during a visit to the school last week.
She did not know who supplied the furniture for the kitchen/dining hall, saying “we just accepted the items”’ However, she did confirm that the equipment lied idle and unused.
Duo Construction manager Zanuse Makhoza denied any wrong doing, indicating that representatives of the ministry visited the school and conducted an inspection for works carried out. He said such works were approved and his company was duly paid after the ministry’s officials were satisfied with the performance.
