By Kefiloe Kajane
A yet another delay to pay for equipment supplied by a private company has exposed the ministry of trade and industry’s inefficiency in rendering services.
This when the traders who wished to register their business companies were hand-folded for a slightly more than a four-week period.
It is only this week when the system for offering such services resumed having caused a belated company registration.
The ministry’s principal secretary Francis Sefali yesterday thanked the business community for what he termed patience shown during the unavailability of the service.
He was not apologetic about the misfortune apparently caused by inefficiency within the ministry.
Sefali explained that the equipment used for registration of companies was imported from New Zealand. It was only in March this year when his ministry realized it was behind on servicing the debt incurred.
According to him, when his office sought funding from the ministry of finance, it was already in the new financial year.
He also explained that a process to get funding from the public purse took some time leading to the collapse in system usage.
“We pay the amount of M900 000 annually and that is the money we owed the company in New Zealand. We would like to emphasize that this will not happen again as we know the inconvenience it caused.
“We promise that from now on we will pay for the system way ahead of time so that inconveniences like these should not happen again. This is the best system that is used around the world. It has moved us very high in the rank of best business registration in the world as we are currently pitched at number 89,” he said.
According to Sefali this was the first time the system ever collapsed since its inception in 2014.
Today theReporter published a story reflecting a dragging of feet by the health ministry to pay for completion of installation of park homes for provision of increased health services at the BEDCO site in Sebabaoleleng, Maseru.
This has led to congestion of patients, nurses and doctors raising doubts about the observance of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Covid-19 health protocols.
Obviously social distancing is impossible to be maintained at the facility due to a limited space within which the Queen II hospital operates.
Three park homes have not been erected and are lying unused while the company that suppled the shelters has not been fully paid for services rendered.
