Botswana Football Association has noted with disappointment and grave concern the unethical unbalanced and unsubstantiated reporting by the Voice newspaper dated Friday 17th July 2020. The newspaper goes to town with a sensational headline ‘‘the wheels are off.’’
The news article on the Voice newspaper makes claims that the Botswana Premier League procured its current fleet of cars in a corrupt manner from a company owned by the Botswana Football Association President. The writer make claims that the Botswana Premier league did not follow proper procedure and only sourced quotation from one company.
The reports carried by The Voice are false and un-researched and should be considered as fake news of the highest order. The Botswana Football Association has noted with grave concern unethical consistency from the same writer, over the past 4 weeks, wherein the agenda is to smear the BFA, and ultimately it’s President. The BFA considers such reporting as unethical and unprofessional, clearly pushing an agenda unknown to the BFA but clearly known to the writer and the people for whom she is working.
At a Board meeting held on the 8th September 2017 it was resolved and agreed that the Botswana Premier league secretariat should procure its own vehicles. This was considered the best solution as the Premier League had been paying close to P660 00 to car rentals.
In November of 2017 the then Botswana Premier League Executive Director instructed procurement process to begin, correctly executing the Board’s decision. The Botswana Premier League received 5 quotations from reputable motor dealers in the country and outside the country. The quotation with the lowest price was AVIS Budget.
Botswana Football Associations Procurement standards were followed and Avis Budget as one of the bidders satisfied all procurement requirements.
During this process the Botswana Football Association President and the National Executive had never been involved nor informed of the transaction as this was purely operational under the Botswana Premier League Secretariat and sanctioned by a Board resolution. By the way, The BFA President has long declared interest in all his business to the BFA, and to the public, before and after he assumed office.
With these facts, the Botswana Football Association demands, within 7 days, a back page apology to the Association and the President for the fake and un-researched news by The Voice, failing which we would seek legal recourse against The Voice.
