Botswana Family Welfare Association (BOFWA) Chief Executive Officer, Una Ngwenya faces serious allegations of abuse of office and a possible jail term as skeleton begin to tumble from the troubled organization’s closet.
According to a leaked document from the association board, Ngwenya is accused of nepotism, favoritism and misappropriation of funds amounting to millions of pulas among other allegations.
The allegations, contained in a document, which was submitted to the BOFWA board by a whistle blower sates in part that, “There are many staff members who have been recruited without following the BOFWA and national labour laws. For example the engagement of the finance and admin manager who is over the retirement age as defined in the condition of employment.”
The complaint against the CEO further reads, “The same officer mentioned above has been receiving no taxed monthly salary of P 4 000.00 from the organization through a cheque instead of a payroll system. In Botswana any monthly remuneration of P 3500 is taxable by law. This was noted through the 2018 audit reports as a query and it was concluded that BOFWA did not have clear remuneration policy for volunteers as differences in allowances was marked ranging from P 1000 to P 4 000. This was noted during the 2018 accreditation assessment and to date the issue has not been addressed.”
The CEO is also accused of abuse of office by using company vehicles after working hours and on weekends.
She has also been blamed for a missing P 16000, which was allegedly embezzled through one of the volunteers.
Ngwenya was also cited for nepotism as the document alleges that she engaged her brother in condom branding position.
“The CEO telephonically engaged bogus consultant out of the project and our budget,” further reads the document.
“The team established that by 10 July 2019 BOFWA staff gratuity provision was P 1 262 468 while the bank account had P 306 865. The organisation accumulated a deficit and has worsened from 2017 to 2018.
BOFWA made an unrestricted loss of P 1 040 269.59 -based on audited reports of the 2018 financial year,” further reads the report.
The BOFWA CEO who has been outside the country this week finally responded to The Voice queries.
“I can confirm that there are allegations against BOFWA and myself. As procedural, it is a matter to be handled by the employer (BOFWA Board) hence I am not at liberty to discuss the matter. For further information kindly contact the BOFWA President.”
Efforts to reach BOFWA president were futile at time of going to press.