02 Mar 2025

Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) is currently conducting criminal investigations in relation to allegations of corruption at the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), and DCEC cannot share any report or findings of the ongoing investigations until charges have been drawn up, Minister of Trade and Entrepreneurship Mr Tiroeaone Ntsima told Parliament.

Minister Ntsima also said corruption audit was carried out on the operations of CEDA in 2013 in terms of Section 6(f) of the Corruption and Economic Crime Act. He said the audit was carried out for the purposes of examining the practices and procedures at CEDA to identify gaps, opportunities and risks of corruption with a view to make recommendations for improvement.

Mr Ntsima said corruption prevention reports were usually presented to the leadership of the affected organisation, adding that release of issues of administrative reforms therefore remained a prerogative of the organisation and in this case CEDA may release the contents.

He further said a compliance division was established within CEDA as implementation of the recommendations contained in the Corruption Prevention Audit Report.

“The report’s full recommendations cannot be made public as it contains individuals’ names and companies who would otherwise have to be consulted to give consent”, he said

He further said the matter relating to administrative recommendations and their implementation was dealt with and that Venture Capital Botswana entered into an arbitration process in 2020 and an Arbitrator was appointed in August 2020. He said the findings of the arbitration process would be released to the parties when complete.

The minister said CEDA purchased an executive house at Extension 11, Gaborone, from Botswana Development Corporation(BDC) in a public auction at a price of P9.6m including VAT, auctioneers’s fees and valuation cost.

As CEDA was a participant at the public auction sale, he said, it did not engage any estate agent to do the transaction on its behalf, instead a senior CEDA employee was the one representing the agency in the bidding duly authorised by the board of directors.

He further said CEDA spent P3.2m to refurbish the property including re-roofing, fixing the flooring, re-building parameter walls that had been damaged by overgrown trees and other structural works that needed to be carried out.

Regarding the rental Mr Ntsima said CEDA moved to its current premises in 2017 on a five-year lease and the agency paid a monthly rental of P485 430 excluding VAT with the annual escalation at eight per cent. The total amount paid on the building for over the past five years was P42 882 452.54 up to December 2024.

He said the building belonginged to a 100 per cent citizen owned company called Estate Property Investment, and that the same company was given a loan amounting to P30m in September 2017 for finishings to the building and the loan was fully re-paid in August 2022.

He further said initially CEDA invested P7m for a 35 per cent shareholding in Pula Steel and issued a debenture instrument of P13m making the total CEDA investment P20m.

The minister said then BCL came on board acquiring nine per cent of the CEDA shareholding and paid a consideration of P1.8m to bring the CEDA shareholding to 26 per cent and therefore a total investment of P18.3m from the initial P20m.

Mr Ntsima further said it was unfortunate that CEDA had not earned any financial returns on the investment as the company was prematurely closed before it could start generating returns for the shareholders. The company, he said was currently under liquidation and when it was operational, the employment created in Selebi Phikwe by Pula Steel was 155 employees.

The Minister was responding to a question by Lobatse MP, Mr Kamal Jacobs who asked if the findings of DCEC on CEDA’s forensic report was ever released. He further wanted to establish why the report was being kept as a top secret and measures CEDA has taken relating to whistleblowing and corruption prevention at the agency.

Additionally, Mr Jacobs wanted the recommendations of a parallel forensic audit for CEDA Venture Capital Fund as well as how much the agency spent on buying and later refurbishing a four bed-roomed house for the CEO in Extension 11 and who were the estate agents for the said transactions.

He further wanted to know the terms of office building at the CBD, the owners of the building, the name of the company the agency had entered into a lease agreement with respect of Plot No. 54350, the amount paid in the last five years and the period of the lease and if construction of the building was financed by CEDA.

Lastly MP Jacobs wanted the minister to state the amounts CEDA spent on Pula Steel and returns gained. ENDS