AfDB plans to capacitate parliament
MOTSAMAI MOKOTJO
MASERU – The African Development Bank (AfDB) intends to offer capacity building to the Parliament of Lesotho to the tune of USD $331 million, Public Eye can report.
The Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences and other oversight bodies have also been earmarked as beneficiaries of this support intended to buttress the institutions to play a more robust oversight role of government projects.
Chairman of parliament’s Portfolio Committee Chairpersons, Mokhothu Makhalanyane, flanked by chairman of the Economic and Development Cluster, Sello Hakane, this week exchanged ideas in a virtual conference with the AfDB Deputy Director for Southern Africa, Moono Muputola.
“Part of the deal is to assist our parliament in the production of well-researched, legally sound quality reports. That is one of the key issues we spoke about during our engagement,” Makhalanyane told Public Eye.
“We need to continue to hold the executive accountable and assess projects, some of which are financed by the bank,” the legislator said.
An AfDB Aide-Memoir, dated February 10 to 14, 2025, under Priority Area II: Strengthening Institutional and Human Capacities for Improved Public Sector Efficiency and Enhanced Competitiveness, notes the need to “strengthen the legislative framework and the capacity of oversight functions, including audit, procurement, and anti-corruption.”
Such declarations are against alleged fraud being committed by members of the executive and civil servants.
One project that has been at the center is the refurbishment of Moshoeshoe I International Airport, whose cost rose from M50 million to a staggering M184 million – raising suspicion of corruption.
Minister of Public Works and Transport, Neo Matjato Moteana, has been accused of awarding his ex-company Tomane Khatleli Moteane Architects a tender for the airport project.
It is against the aforementioned that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) made recommendations for Moteane and other senior civil servants in his ministry to be axed.
The PAC noted: “Immediate cancellation of the LSP contract (RFP Reference Number: GOL/001/2023/24) and re-tendering under an open international competitive process.
“The Public Procurement Act Section 147 (a)(ii), (v), and b(f) provide for the legal provisions for termination. The new tendering process should align with ICAO audit reports (2007 and 2022) recommendations on safety and aviation standards.
Disciplinary action should be taken against the Principal Secretary, the Deputy Principal Secretary, and the Director of BDS, and they should be dismissed.”
A defiant Moteane told Public Eye in an earlier interview that he’s going nowhere, and will wait for DCEO to launch investigations and for the courts to find him guilty.
“I don’t know what they want. Do they want me to be fired from the cabinet, to be reshuffled, or to be kicked out of the country?” Moteane said to the paper.
Another glaring enterprise is the alleged mis-procurement and violations of tender irregularities for the Lesotho Standards Institution (LSI), in which the government had asked for over M200 million in funding from the AfDB.
Minister of Trade Mokhethi Shelile, of whose purview the LSI falls, simply indicated when questioned about irregularitie surrounding this project that an Environmental Social Impact Assessment is not a prerequisite for the project.
Members of Parliament were initially informed that AfDB was meant to finance the project but were later surprised when Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Dr Retšelisitsoe Matlanyane, spoke of government financing the construction during the 2025/2026 budget speech.
Matlanyane said the construction was meant “to improve market access, the Lesotho Standards Institution (LSI) will be operationalized to handle standards development, testing, and certification. Construction of LSI facilities will begin in the upcoming financial year.”
The AfDB has since pointed to “Lesotho’s development challenges remain unchanged compared to the CSP 2020-2024 period. They are characterized by slow economic and institutional transformation, which has hindered private sector-led job creation and inclusive growth.
Therefore, the objective of the Bank’s CSP 2025-2030 is to support Lesotho to accelerate progress towards high value-added production.”
In the energy sector, the bank notes: “It is estimated that about 53 percent of households, with the majority in urban areas, have access to electricity. The vision for universal access by 2030 is constrained by insufficient domestic generation capacity and overreliance on costly power imported from the region.
Currently, the country generates about half of its energy needs with a domestic capacity of 102 MW from the ‘Muela Hydropower Plant (72 MW) and a solar PV plant (30 MW), which is inadequate to satisfy the domestic peak demand of 196 MW. The government’s vision is to increase power generation beyond 100 percent to export excess energy to the Southern African Power Pool.”
Yet there’s the contentious issue of the US$350 million Beijing Jingyuntong Technology (BJT) contract for Phase II of the Ha Ramarothele, which was inked by Dr Matlanyane last year.
Makhalanyane told this publication that it is such deals which they want parliament to interrogate since their signature raises the likelihood of corruption and may eventually bankrupt the country.
“We should have control of our assets as Basotho, where we can assess whether we are going to benefit or not; we need to be respected and treated as independent, which should participate in overseeing mega projects,” he said.
