OP dupes MPs on Orapa House

The Office of the President (OP) is on the verge of completing a multimillion Pula acquisition of the Orapa House De Beers and Debswana following parliament’s approval.

It remains a mystery how parliament (which had initially been reluctant to commit on the deal) approved the P293 million deal without thorough scrutiny of the proposed acquisition. The request is placed on the draft document of the 2014/15 estimates of expenditure for the consolidated and development funds, that all MPs have been supplied with in advance.

The proposed OP Office Block seeks to address shortage of office accommodation in the ministry of state president, according to documents seen by this publication. At an estimated cost of P292, 598,000, the 11000 square metres office building has been home to Botswana Diamond Valuing Company (BDVC), a subsidiary of De Beers and Debswana Diamond company for several years. The building became vacant after Diamond Trading Company (DTC) relocated to the state of the art building along the airport road in Block 8.

Botswana Guardian has been reliably informed that years back De Beers offered Orapa House to government at a negotiated cost of P79 million, which escalated slightly to a little over P88 million as a result of inclusion of VAT. But legislators were reluctant to approve the acquisition on two occasions arguing that the deal was not justifiable considering a tighter squeeze on the budget during the National Development Plan 10.  

Legislators also argued strongly that Gaborone has an oversupply of office accommodation and that there was no urgency in acquiring the building as it can be budgeted for in the following financial year. An initial snap evaluation placed the value of Orapa House at P76 million but a comprehensive valuation undertaken in late October 2012 estimated its market value at P74 million. The Public Accounts Committee – (PAC), a select committee of parliamentarians responsible for overseeing government expenditure felt under the circumstances then, the negotiated value would be lower than the market value.

Parliament records show that the last request by government to have the funds approved was done through a supplementary estimates, financial paper No 2 of the 2012/13 and tabled in parliament on 21 Wednesday November 2012. In rejecting the proposal, a seven man PAC chaired by Nehemiah Modubule stated it was reported to them by the ministry that the department of buildings and engineering services (DEBS) had carried out structural assessment of the building and determined that the building was structurally sound except for the need for a few modifications.

In its intervention, the PAC requested the accounting to submit the market valuation documents for the building to compare the costs with constructing new offices other than buying the building. Botswana Guardian has established that the ministry preferred Orapa House because of its location and further that its security features can easily be fitted. The Building belongs to Debswana and not De Beers alone. What has long become very clear is that once Diamond Trading Centre Botswana building is opened, Orapa House will remain a white elephant.

The contract signed between the government and De Beers over the DTC Botswana building provided that once the new building is in operation, Orapa house shall return to De Beers or its wholly owned subsidiary for no consideration.