I have read a series of news articles published on your website about Coop Lesotho and believe that I have a right to reply to some of the issues raised in the stories as I hereby do to set the record straight.

It has been claimed that I entered and signed sublease agreement, and other important contracts by myself on behalf of Co-op Lesotho. I want to state clearly that there is no agreement or contract that I could sign without the approval of the Co-op Lesotho Board. All agreements I signed were through a power of Attorney issued by the Board.

On the claim that I have acquired four cars since I have been employed by Co-op Lesotho, I want to state that for all my life, I have been a business man. From 2013 to February 2017, I had run a Bakery business. I was supplying boarding schools and among them were Lesotho High School for two years, Makena High School for three years and Holy Family High School for three years also. The name of the Bakery was Hotel Side Bakery which I sold in February 2017.

In 2016, I decided to venture into transport business and chose a vehicle hiring model offered by government. By the time I got employed by Co-op Lesotho in May 2017, I had five vehicles already, among them were: One SUV, One sedan, One Single Cab Bakkie and two Double Cab 4×4 bakkies.

Currently or to date, I do have six vehicles, One SUV, two sedans and three 4×4 double cab bakkies, and all these vehicles are for business as I have alluded before.

Out of these six vehicles, I have one Nissan 4×4 Double Cab hired by the government for three years from April 2017 to March 2020, and is paid M27,577.00 per month and M992,772.00 annually. I have therefore sold three vehicles and bought four.

NB. This is not my only business, I do have about two others and one dates as far back as 2009.

For the commissioner to make all these allegations against me, I would like her to come clean first by withdrawing her case in the High Court of Lesotho, whereby she is blocking the findings of a forensic audit initiated by the Ministry of Small Business development. The case number is CIV/APN/73/2017. This forensic audit was done on Co-op Lesotho for years from 2002 to 2016. Unless she withdraw this case I do not think she should be taken serious and any information from her to be taken as credible.

Once again, in 2018, Ministry of Small Business Development was to account before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) just like other Ministries. As she was being questioned by the PAC, she resorted to seeking a Court order to block PAC from questioning her. Why? For the record, she is the only one employee from the Ministry of Small business who ran away from the PAC.

So unless she withdraws the two cases, CIV/APN/73/2017 and the one against PAC whose case number is ÇIV/APN/385/18, she should stop making allegations either against me or Co-op Lesotho. This is because she is highly implicated in the forensic audit findings and the PAC findings. This is my strong challenge to her.

She will recall that a forensic audit by her ministry was due to her allegations against the previous manager of Co-op Lesotho and she even suspended that manager. After suspending the manager, she challenged the findings of the same forensic audit when they implicated her in misappropriating funds and abuse of her powers. Mr Letlama talejana confirm that there was actually a debt of M4 million.

Commissioner claims I have disposed seven sites illegally and she claims she had documents to proof this. I challenge her to produce them.

She further claims that I have misappropriated Co-op Lesotho resources/ funds. This calls for a need for a forensic audit. She claims the debt is far less to what I claim has been settled.

Neo Theoha is the new Chief Executive Officer of the Coop Lesotho.