NDB union and management clash

The future of Lorato Morapedi as chief executive of the National Development Bank (NDB) has been thrown into serious doubt after the bank’s staff members voted to endorse a vote of no confidence on her and the bank’s Board of Directors.

The explosive push came from disgruntled members of the NDB Employees Union at the end of a long and fiery meeting held on the 11th of this month, Botswana Guardian has learnt. Following a long and sometimes confrontational dispute between union members and management regarding the overall running of the development bank, employees have lost confidence in Morapedi and the Board. They now want the Minister of Finance and Development Planning Kenneth Matambo to take action.

The dispute dates back to 2012. According to inside sources, the NDB Employees Union feels that in a highly competitive business of borrowing and lending, and given the commercialisation drive of NDB, “the CEO lacks both the charisma and technical competence to rally her troops.” And as for the NDB Board of Directors, “they have resorted to acting as the CEO’s gatekeepers,” always ready to sweep under the carpet anything that implicates the CEO. Lapses in judgment on the part of the CEO have allegedly dented the bank’s accounts, say the employees’ representatives claiming that NDB has a total arrears in bad debts amounting to P319 million.

They say the bank’s performance has not shown any significant growth as it used to be in the past. “The continued poor performance biases more towards leadership or lack of it, because other leaders have been able to perform better with the same employees,” a letter dated May 4, 2012 passed to the Botswana Guardian reads. A source within the union who preferred to remain anonymous because he is not mandated to speak to the press told this publication this week that they have been trying to engage the management and the board regarding the welfare of staff members, NDB structural issues and the bank’s bad financial position but their efforts always hit a snag.

The source further revealed that they have now passed a motion of no confidence against Morapedi and the Board of Directors and they have since alerted Minister Matambo this week on the issue. A letter seen by this publication addressed to the Board Chairman Lesedi Seitei outlines the employees’ grievances. And according to the source this forms part of their basis to have the CEO and the Board removed. “Continual lack of role clarity in affairs of the bank has had a negative impact on staff morale as a whole,” the letter written on the 12 December 2014 under the sub-heading “Staff Morale and Welfare” notes. Seitei this week declined to discuss the differences they have with the NDB union saying it is not the board’s culture to discuss internal issues with third parties. Asked about the motion of no confidence passed on his board, Seitei simply said, “I am not aware.” The board chairman has in the past accused the union of using wrong platforms to channel their grievances.

“Your disregard to agreed and proper communication channels is against the spirit of the Collective Labour Agreement that you have with the Bank,” a letter written by Seitei addressed to the union reads. In the same letter Seitei cautioned the union to stop and desist from copying the Finance Minister, “in your correspondence to us, again there are proper channels to be followed in this regard.” Seitei is being heavily criticised by the union leadership who claim that the Board has not been changed for the past 12 years. The union leadership argues that this is against corporate governance.

“The continued stay of similar board members over such a long period of time compromises transparency, accountability and openness,” says the union. NDB’s communications and marketing department on Wednesday said they are not aware that a motion of no confidence has been passed against Morapedi. However they asked to be sent a questionnaire. For his part, NDB Employees Union president Olebogeng Watshipi confirmed that they have communicated with Matambo and the Board but said he is not in a position to discuss the contents of the letters.

“I will be disrespectful to both the minister and the board if I discuss the issue before they have even responded,” he said. Meanwhile, a lawyer trained on corporate law is of the view that Watshipi and his colleagues in the union’s efforts will just be in vain. The lawyer who preferred to remain anonymous said there is no law that backs ‘motions of no confidence’ especially when dealing with corporate structures such as NDB.