Inside how Bluthorn Fund''s money was chowed without mercy
- CEO grilled over P120 000/pm salary
- Top politician paid P50 000/pm but not on payroll
- Liquidated company owes creditors P250 million
- Government is the biggest loser
How did it happen that the former Kweneng Council boss, who is also the president of Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA), Jeffery Sibisibi, was paid P50 000 when he was never an employee of the company?
That’s the million-dollar question that has the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the liquidated Bluthorn Fund Managers (BFM) Company, Joseph Mosimane, at sixes and sevens.
Mosimane was interrogated before Deputy Master Chipo Gaobatwe at the Gaborone High Court to find out what led to the collapse of BFM.
According to a report of May 2021 by the liquidator Kopanang Thekiso, the company was licensed to carry out the business of a Collective Investment Undertaking (CIU).
However, they instead operated as a deposit-taking institution by getting deposits from investors and lending out at interest.
This was contrary to the terms of the license that was issued by the regulator, the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA).
The liquidated company now owes creditors, mostly district councils around P250 million and chances are that the monies may never be recovered.
When firing Mosimane with questions, the liquidator’s attorney, Sipho Ziga, demanded that Mosimane tells the court the role that was played by Sibisibi at BFM.
“He was a shareholder of Bluthorn Holdings Company and would come in occasionally to ask about the health of the fund in his capacity as shareholder,” Mosimane answered.
“And you paid someone P50 000 per month for just asking about the health of the company? Was this a verbal agreement or there was a contract?” the lawyer asked.
In response, Mosimane said he was only carrying out the instruction of both the majority shareholder, Eune Engelbrecht, and the Human Resource department that Sibisibi should be paid.
The lawyer asked if Sibisibi was included in the company’s payroll system to which Mosimane answered in the negative, suggesting that Sibisibi was instead given P50 000 as allowance for ‘engaging and consulting.’
Punching harder, Ziga said records indicated that even after ceasing to be a company shareholder, Sibisibi continued to get paid.
Ziga asked Mosimane why a man of his status, a highly educated chartered accountant, found it fine that Sibisibi continued to be paid even when he was no longer a shareholder.
Ziga added that documents before him suggest that the company was also paying P30 000 for Sibisibi’s accommodation in Phakalane.
“Did you see that as normal? Did you ever question it? In fact, you yourself was (sic) listed as a shareholder of the fund company owning 10 percent, were you not worried,” Ziga asked?
“I believed it was all done in good faith,” Mosimane responded.
Moreover, Ziga asked Mosimane to explain why his salary ballooned from P80 000 to P120 000 per month and why it was paid from Bluthorn Holdings company and not BFM where he was employed as CEO.
“It was for administrative purposes and with the salary increase, the company had witnessed substantial growth. Also, there had not been an increase for the CEO for three years,” Mosimane answered.
When questioned, Joseph Batsalelwang, who was employed by BFM as Business Development Manager told the court that even though the company documents revealed that he owned 10 percent of the company’s shares, in reality, there was nothing linking him to the said shares.
He said his name was just borrowed and used for paperwork because he was never invited to any board meetings, nor paid any dividends or anything that suggested that he was a shareholder in the company.
Batsalelwang’s shocking revelation pointed to the lack of proper governance structure at Bluthorn, a grey area that was also picked by the liquidator, Thekiso in his report.
The interrogation continues next week at the Gaborone High Court and it is expected that the regulator (NBFIRA) and the auditor will be called in for interrogation.