Matiisetso Mosala

Following MNN’s exposé of suspected fraud and corruption within the Smallholder Agriculture Development Project (SADP), the project is contracting an independent consultant to examine if the donor-funded grants that have been dispersed to date have been above board.  

As part of SADP II, the organisation put out a call for consultants to conduct an external process audit of the SADP grants programme on June 14, 2024. The advertisement, which was published on Newsday, set out how the SADP wants to verify that expenditures funded over the project implementation period are eligible as outlined in the grant agreements and whether funds were used for the intended purpose with due regard for economy and efficiency.

Part of the consultant brief reads: “SADP II is looking for a consultant to look into this issue, prepare a detailed report that will be submitted to the Government of Lesotho, World Bank and IFAD management to make an informed decision”. 

This follows revelations that MNN published after an investigation exposed how the then project director ‘Malichaba Nkhethoa had turned the project into a personal get-rich-quick scheme leaving the farmers who were supposed to benefit out of pocket and unable to grow their businesses. 

A 2022 audit report on this project, and an internal report released by an anonymous group of SADP workers in February 2023 called Maladministration, malpractices, and alleged corrupt practices at the Smallholder Agriculture Development Project, supported MNN’s findings. In the 2022 audit, Accountant General uncovered that grants for which the measures defined in the grant manual and the grant agreement were not systematically followed. 

The consultant brief also states that the World Bank team will be copied on all consultant-project director communications. 

MNN reached out to the current SADP director, ‘Mabafokeng Mangope who took over from Nkhethoa, to establish why SADP went for an external independent consultant and not the office of the Auditor General as is always the case with audits. She responded, “I have decided to set up a meeting with the staff for you so that you can obtain the information you require, taking into consideration your interest in the project”.

Of the three questions MNN asked was an inquiry into whether the SADP is comfortable that the five weeks given for this consultancy is enough to complete an audit of that scope and also asked for a copy of the SADP 2022 audit report which seemed to have informed the audit in question. Mangope said they are not available for such a meeting that week, thus, she would provide the date during the first week of July [skipping the following week] even then it would be just to set a date and not to convene a meeting. 

When MNN was investigating the alleged corruption at the SADP, the World Bank Group’s Eastern and Southern Africa senior external affairs officer, Lavinia Engelbrecht, told MNN: “the [World] Bank takes such allegations seriously, an internal review process will be instituted to consider the matter”. However, a year went by without communication of such findings. 

Similarly, the minister of agriculture, Thabo Mofosi, claimed that he was contractually bound to account for funds in the ministry, hence “…the ministry would internally investigate the matter”. A year later, nothing had come of the investigation.

MNN recently published a follow-up story which detailed how Nkhethoa [SADP former director] had secured new employment with an American-funded organisation, the Millenium Challenge Account Lesotho II, while she was still working at the agricultural agency, drawing a salary, even firing people. The MCA had appointed her as the director of Market Driven Irrigated Horticulture (MDIH), where she was to oversee the $118-million project [about M2.2 billion]. 

After learning that she was still employed by the SADP even though she had already assumed her responsibilities as director at MCA, she was suspended and subsequently fired in February 2024.

Now that Nkhethoa has left the SADP, the project is auditing grants which she oversaw. Once hired, the consultant is expected to review the processes leading to the grants for beneficiaries under SADP starting on June 30, 2020, utilising a combination of document analysis, stakeholder interviews and workflow observations. 

The SADP states that it expects the consultant to also apply unbiased assessment practices to ensure the integrity and transparency of the audit process by reviewing the progress reports of a sample of grant beneficiaries no less than 20 percent of the total number of grants (310 grants) selected on a risk basis and review all the invoices attached and reconcile them with the budget items in the grant agreement. 

Further, the contractor has to “independently interview beneficiaries about the process and determine any deviations from the grant manual and grant agreement focusing on processes and documentation and determine the level of irregular expenditures and the reasons for their occurrences among others. 

Where suspected cases of fraud, corruption and other sanctionable practices are identified, these should be reported to the World Bank for deciding the proper course of action, having each case being detailed in the addendum to the final report” states the expression.