Exposed: M109m fraud at agric ministry 

Mohalenyane Phakela 

A WEB of corruption and fraud, worth a whopping M109 million, involving tenders for the purchase of agricultural inputs has been unearthed by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO). 

The fraud at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food security and Nutrition involved corrupt officials and their accomplices, including Democratic Congress (DC) legislator for Mechachane constituency, Jane Lekunya. Mr Lekunya and his wife, ‘Makhoase Lekunya, stand accused of helping to launder payments to ministry officials who had allegedly corruptly awarded the tenders for fertilizers, seeds and pesticides. 

Senior ministry officials allegedly went out of their way to ensure they bypassed competitive bidding processes to benefit companies owned by Mr Lekunya’s associate, Moeketsi (Tsunami) Ntaote, subsequently facilitating inflated payments to them from treasury in exchange of kickbacks. 

The multi-million tender fraud scheme allegedly occurred between 2021 and 2022 with suspected illicit money transfers between the accounts of those involved spilling into 2023 after the government had fully paid them. 

Mr Lekunya is alleged to have assisted in laundering the proceeds from the tenders. This he allegedly did together with businessman (Tsunami) Ntaote, former agriculture Principal Secretary Mole Khumalo and the ministry’s procurement manager, ‘Mapaseka Nkone. 

Mr Ntaote would get several tenders from Ms Nkone to supply the government with inputs such as seeds, pesticides and fertilisers. Mr Ntaote would then transfer funds to Mr Lekunya, who in turn would pass the money to Ms Nkone and their other alleged accomplices. 

The DCEO says this web of graft had prejudiced the government of M109 184 650.  The tender costs were deliberately inflated to prejudice the government and enrich the participants in the graft. 

The allegations are all contained in a confidential investigations report of the DCEO which calls for the prosecution of the four alongside their accomplices for violating the Public Financial Management and Accountability Ac, 2011. 

The tenders were selectively awarded to Mr Ntaote’s Movement (Pty) Ltd, with has ties to Mr Lekunya’s Guardrisk Insurance Brokers company.  Competitive bidding processes were bypassed in favour of dubious selective tendering, the DCEO states. 

“Procurement Manager, ‘Mapaseka Nkone, was awarding for procurement of agricultural inputs (fertilisers, seeds and pesticides) to her alleged concubine/close friend Tsunami Ntaote without following proper procurement procedures or in manipulating procedures to suit Ntaote in exclusion of other companies,” part of the DCEO report states. The word concubine seems to have been wrongly used in place of boyfriend. Concubine refers to a woman in a relationship with a married man in common parlance.  Both Ms Ntaote and Ms Nkone are listed as married to their different partners by the DCEO, aside from their alleged illicit relationship.   

“Tender documents, payment vouchers and tender panel minutes were requested from PS Agric. Upon scrutiny of these documents, it was discovered that there was a common trend where Ntaote’s companies: Glorified Group of Companies, Advanced Agricultural Products/Movement and Agriprotec were awarded numerous tenders through limited or selective tendering. This was done in exclusion of those companies which have been supplying inputs for many years. 

“In awarding such tenders, the procurement manager (Nkone) deliberately failed to disclose that she had previous dealings with Ntaote or that Ntaote is her personal friend which brings in the conflict of interest. Despite all these, she handpicked Ntaote’s companies knowingly and requested selective tendering even when circumstances did not necessitate such procedures. 

“We recommend that the following persons be charged with corruption and money laundering: Mapaseka Nkone, Moeketsi Ntaote, Mannenyane Ntaote, Jane Lekunya, Makhoase Lekunya, Thabo Letsolo, Toka Nkone, Glorified Group of Companies, Movement, Guardrisk, Hold on, Mole Khumalo and Nchakha Makara.” 

Full schedule of payments made to Ntaote’s companies 

Khumalo 

The DCEO claims Advocate Khumalo connived with Ms Nkone to manipulate the tender processes in order ensure that Mr Ntaote’s companies continued to receive tenders. 

“The investigation revealed the motive of the PS in that he connived with the procurement manager to unceremoniously dissolve the tender panel that was abreast with procurement regulations and replaced it with one without proper training ad experience. The dissolution of the (experienced) panel was influenced by the procurement manager who was against the tender panel demanding explanations from her.” 

Kickbacks to Nkone 

The DCEO lists a number of transactions which prove that Ms Nkone had been benefitting from her deals with Mr Ntaote. 

“On 14 May 2021, M850 000 was transferred to Mr Lekunya, after which a Ford Ranger with registration number JZ 89 VH GP to the value of M832 350 was purchased from Pharoah Auto Investments. This is the same Ford Rander that is permanently being driven by Ms Nkone in Lesotho. The vehicle was registered in the name of Mr Lekunya.” 

It is also alleged that Mr Ntaote paid M1500 towards Ms Nkone’s son, Toka’s, school fees on 20 January 2021. He also sent M3000 to Hlompho Sekonyela’s FNB account. Hlompho is Ms Nkone’s other child. On 4 February 2022, Mr Ntaote further sent Ms Nkone M400 and M2050 the following day for Ms Nkone’s vehicle repairs. 

“We identified that Ms Nkone contacted Mr Ntaote 1095 times and spent 2226.9 minutes from January 2021 to March 2023. We further identified that Mr Ntaote phoned Ms Nkone 882 times and spent 1761.8 minutes during the same period,” the DCEO report states. 

Jane Lekunya 

The DCEO report further shows substantive amounts of monies being transferred into Mr Lekunya’s account by Mr Ntaote. 

“…For instance, M5.5 million was transferred from Ntaote’s FNB Lesotho account into Lekunya Jane’s account on 23 December 2021. There was a further transfer of M3.5 million into Jane’s personal account on 18 March 2022. On 12 April 2022, M123 000 was sent to Jane’s account. 

“On 19 March 2021, Jane received M200 000 from Movement company and another M500 000 on 23 March 2021. On 24 March 2021, Jane received M46 000 from Ntaote. On 4 May 2021, Jane received M850 000 from Ntaote. 

“On 12 December 2022, an amount of M500 000 was transferred to the Stanlib account of Mr Lekunya with number 353391678. This is another transfer transaction where the funds were transferred out of Mr Ntaote’s Stanlib account.” 

‘Makhoase Lekunya 

“Ms Lekunya received a total of M22 648 500 into her Stanlib investment account from Mr Ntaote and his companies.” 

Broken down, Ms Lekunya received M3 million on 23 March 2021, M4 398 500 on 1 February 2022, M3 250 000 and M12 million on 6 June 2022. 

“On 20 September 2021, an amount of M3 898 500 was paid to Bayer (Pty) Ltd, which is a supplier of agricultural products. We find it strange that Ms Lekunya would purchase agricultural products using funds received from Mr Ntaote, whilst Mr Ntaote was awarded large agricultural contracts by the Ministry of Agriculture. One would expect Mr Ntaote and Ms Lekunya to be in competition with each other if both were purchasing and supplying agricultural products, yet they rather transact with each other for significant amounts. It is highly likely that Ms Lekunya purchased the items on behalf of Mr Ntaote to service agriculture contracts. 

“On 11 August 2022, an amount of M5 220 000 was paid from Ms Lekunya’s Standard Bank Account into Advanced Agriculture’s Post Bank account. This amount stems from the M5 250 000 that was initially paid from Ms Lekunya’s Stanlib investment account into her personal Standard Bank account. 

“On 5 January 2021, M4 676 677 was paid to Mark Lesotho, in which Mr Lekunya is a director. Mr Lekunya was appointed as a director on 4 January 2023 – a day before the transaction occurred. Our investigation in this regard is still ongoing. On 5 January 2023, M1 409 073 was paid to Adlyn Holdings. Mr Lekunya was a director of Adlyn Holdings from 7 December 2021 to 12 May 2022, and again from 29 December 2022 to 22 June 2023. He held directorship for eight days when the M1 409 073 was paid. 

“It is plausible that Mr Lekunya assumed directorship with the sole purpose to facilitate the movement of the M4 676 677 under Mark Lesotho as well as the M1 409 073 under Adlyn Holdings, to distance himself, his wife and Mr Ntaote from the origin of the funds, being Ministry of Agriculture. Our investigation in this regard is still ongoing. 

Guardrisk 

Mr Lekunya was appointed its director upon its incorporation on 8 June 2015 and resigned as director of Guardrisk on 10 February 2023. On the same day, all directors resigned, and Ms Lekunya was appointed and remained the only director of Guardrisk. 

“On 4 October 2021, Guardrisk paid M2.1 million from its Standard Bank account into Advanced Agriculture’s Post Bank account. Based on the description, this is a loan to Tsunami which is Mr Ntaote (sic). After receiving funds from the Ministry of Agric on 31 January 2022, the full M2.1 million was paid back into Guardrisk’s Stanlib investment account from the Movement’s FNB account on 1 February 2022, and an additional M100 000 was paid to Guardrisk. 

“On 18 November 2021, M4 million was paid from Guardrisk’s Standard Bank account and the transaction description on the bank statement reads ‘000001822164 IBANK/TSUNAMI PAVILION SOUTH AFRICA’. M1 559 000 was paid from Guardrisk’s Standard Banks account and the transaction description on the bank statement reads ‘000001822098 IBANK/TSUNAMI PAVILION SOUTH AFRICA’. 

“Both transactions include the wording ‘TSUNAMI PAVILION SOUTH AFRICA’ and totals M5 599 000. Tsunami is the nickname of Ntaote, and the transactions appear to relate to the purchase of a property in Somerset West through Pavilion Properties. It further appears that this property was purchased by Guardrisk on behalf of Tsunami (Ntaote). 

“Fourteen days later, being 2 December 2021, Movement (Pty) Ltd received M13 692 550 from Ministry of Agric, after which the full M5 599 000 was paid back to Guardrisk the next day.” 

All these movements of cash amounted to money laundering, the DCEO alleges, as some of the money ended up with agric ministry officials either in cash or kind as kickbacks for their work in facilitating the tenders.  The DCEO appears to have done a thorough job in following the money trail and unearthing the graft. It is this kind of ravenous corruption that has brought Lesotho down to its economic knees. 

The corruption busting agency said yesterday it was still investigating the case.   

“The matter is still under investigation and we will notify you when it is ready for court,” DCEO spokesperson, ‘Matlhohonolofatso Senoko, told the Lesotho Times. She refused to comment further on the issue.