By Seleoe Nonyane
A former procurement manager in the ministry of health says some of the Auditor General’s (AG) 2021 report findings are inaccurate.
Tsietsi Mosae told the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week that some of the findings would have not appeared the way they do now had he been consulted.
Mosae claimed he had never seen the AG report prior to being summoned before the committee and he was never consulted during its compilation.
According to the report, there were purchases from suppliers with questionable licenses indicating that the ministry of trade and industry appeared to have issued various licenses to suppliers to serve distinctive purposes applied for, at the height of the Covid19 pandemic between 2020 and 2023.
The companies in question are; Bokamoso Medical Aid which was paid M711,201 for supply and delivery of 100 2L fog liquid for fumigation at the ministry of health; Ms Broker which was paid M1,316,776 for supply, delivery and installation of medical oxygen equipment, and M1,566,659 for provision of 250 oxygen gauges and 100-gauge pin index; and Frasers Lesotho which was paid M2,509,990 for supply, delivery and installation of medical equipment. Oasis Business Suppliers was paid M1,285,652 for supply and delivery of bed and mattresses.
According to the AG’s report, the ministry of health contracted suppliers to provide goods and installation services to the tune of M7, 390, 278 despite the fact that the companies’ nature of businesses was not in conformity with required supplies.
The report noted that it could not established as to why the ministry did not purchase medical consumables from the National Drug Service Organisation (NDSO) as required by law, but rather opted for unauthorised suppliers.
When he appeared before the PAC, Mosae was adamant that he was never involved in the compilation of the report. He therefore, could only comment on matters of procedure, which he was conversant with, and not the way they appear in the report.
Explaining how the four suppliers were appointed, Mosae said his office was aligning its work with the Public Procurement Regulations 2007 as amended by the Public Procurement Regulations 2018.
He explained that, with specific regard to Covid-19 issues, the ministry invoked section 8 of the Public Procurement Regulations 2018 which addresses exceptional procurement procedures. This was contrary to the AG’s report that the ministry officials operated outside the procurement regulations.
“The licenses of the suppliers were in order as we had them in our database even prior to the pandemic. They had submitted their profiles, tax clearances and licenses. They were relevant to the procurement requirements at the time. All these activities were reported to the chief accounting officer.
“Bokamoso Medical Aid, for instance, was competent to supply the services because its license is the retail sale of pharmaceutical and medical goods,” Mosae indicated.
He provided the committee with the Bokamoso license issued on May 4, 2023, but the committee insisted they needed the license he received at the time.
The PAC members said they had learned that there were companies that have more than one license, hence the printed one might not be the one the AG had reported on.
Mosae said things such as fumigation liquids do not appear on the list that NDSO provides hence these supplies were not purchased from NDSO.
He accused the committee of torturing him and insinuating that the companies either belonged to him or his acquaintances.
“The companies are not mine,” he said.
Mosae also disclosed that he was forced by (undisclosed) circumstances to retire from his work and therefore felt the committee was unfairly targeting him.
However, PAC chairperson, ‘Machabana Lemphane-Letsie, was not too impressed.
She pointed out it was not the responsibility of the AG to call Mosae to explain the findings before publishing them, but his superiors were to blame for not approaching him to set the record straight.
Lemphane-Letsie said the Bokamoso license provided by Mosae confirmed that it was issued on the mentioned date but there were no indications that it had been renewed.
“I suspect that Mr Mosae may have asked the company to get a license after he realized the AG’s queries. He was supposed to attach the license relevant to that time.
“It is also mind-boggling that services like provision of fog liquid, installation of medical oxygen equipment, provision of oxygen gauges, supply/delivery of medical equipment and supply/delivery of beds and mattresses can be referred to as medical consumables,” she noted.
The AG’s report further revealed that a total amount of M16,249,749 was spent on dry rations and lunch for the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) and Lesotho Defence Force (LDF). These include fortified biscuits, fortified drinks, and Phuzamandla (fortified instant porridge).
The AG could not establish the activities that were done differently during Covid-19 pandemic to attract such expenditure on meals while under normal circumstances the officers at their duty stations provide their own lunches.
Lemphane-Letsie also revealed that the committee had established that the dry rations actually cost more than M45 million, contrary to the M16 million in the AG’s report.
“The AG made these findings using documentation that was made available to her during the compilation of the report, meaning there are more documents that the AG did not access during that time, which the committee managed to get hold of in its own probe,” she added.
