Ram's company gets multimillion direct appointment at MoH

 

Life in Botswana continues to get tougher for indigenous Batswana, who scramble for the crumbs, while the elites, most of whom are of Asian descent swim in opulence.

Recently, Mediland Healthcare Distributors, a company co-owned by Choppies billionaire, Ramachandran Ottapathu, was given a direct appointment to supply a DNA sequencer to the National Health Laboratory for P6 million.

This is happening at a time when government is preaching citizen economic empowerment, equitable distribution of wealth and uplifting of the SME sector. But, from all indications, it is obvious that the government says one thing and does the complete opposite.

Mediland Healthcare that was awarded the multimillion direct contract is a large scale enterprise, and based on the provisions of the Statutory Notice 23 of 2020, all tenders below the value of P10 million should be reserved for SMEs with a turnover of less than P10 million.

Sadly, this statutory requirement was not followed in this contract award. How and why such statutory instruments and legislative provisions were disregarded remains a mystery. Section 76 of the Public Procurement Act of 2021 requires that all tenders be reserved for citizen contractors. However, investigations by this publication reveal that Mediland is not a 100 percent citizen-owned company.

Shareholders of the Holding company Kamoso Africa are Mauritian and South African entities, hence should not have been given a direct appointment under Section 76 of the Public Procurement Act 2020. Another fact that has raised eyebrows is the use of direct appointments. It is not known why an open tender was not floated. Under the Public Procurement Regulations, a direct appointment may only be used in a situation; “Where the selection of supplier is conducted on a sole supplier basis without competition as the supplies, works or services are available from only one provider.”

Therefore, the direct appointment of Mediland for the procurement of a DNA sequencer has implied that Mediland is the only supplier of DNA sequencers in Botswana, which according to sources is an unlikely scenario.

Naturally, one would expect the Ministry of Health to place open tenders and allow the companies in Botswana to compete openly. A source commented on the saga. “The rich are being given direct appointments for millions while poor citizens are made to fight for the crumbs, where is the so-called financial inclusion and equity in this?”

At the time of going to press, the Ministry of Health had not responded to a questionnaire sent to them mid last month.

Contacted for comment, Ottapathu said he does not own Mediland. However, information from the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) cites him as one of the Directors alongside Wilfred Mutungwa Mwiwa and

Ian Duncan Dewar. CIPA is mandated with registering businesses and protect intellectual property rights in Botswana.

Observers have argued that an economy that operates under nepotism, favouritism, and flagrant disregard for laid-down rules and procedures is a recipe for stagnancy and underdevelopment.

When foreign enterprises continue to be favoured to the detriment of local enterprises, the ability of local SMEs to compete is diminished.

On the other hand, this encourages capital flight from the country and discourages local production and development of the economy while fuelling unemployment and hindering market share growth.