By ‘Majirata Latela
The ministry of small business has started moving from Mpilo Boutique Hotel where it has been operating from for the past six months to be housed at the new building ‘1010 Square Building’ in Maseru.
The ministry’s plan to abandon the posh Mpilo Boutique Hotel which is has rented since February under a sub-lease agreement is now seeing the light of the day.
Before being moved to the hotel, it had just ‘ditched’ the Fairways Building which it had also rented for a considerable time.
Ministry of small business, cooperatives and marketing’s principal secretary Advocate Bereng Makotoko told theReporter newspaper that officers began the process of moving to the new premises last week. But it is yet to make an announce to that effect public once it has settled at the new premises.
He said the reasons for moving from the hotel include reduced rental fee making it affordable for the ministry to occupy the place.
“The ministry is given a very small budget so we have to look at ways how we can save money. Due to the high rental fees at Mpilo which stood at M833 000 per month, we realised that we are unable to pay such amount of money; hence the reason for us moving to a M500 000 per month rent,
“With this decision that we have taken, we are saving the government more than M300 000 per month. We are also trying to make the budged that we are given every year to be enough for the ministry to avert any debts,” he explained.
“Before moving we communicated with Matekane Group of Companies and indicated to the company that we have not been able to pay rent since we arrived there. It may not be possible for us to pay for the rent if we continue to occupy the hotel. We had to seek financial assistance from the Accountant General to give us the money to pay the rent because it was a lot of money which we did not have,” he said.
However, Makotoko believed the ministry has not reneged on any contractual obligations. He said the contract agreement allowed for giving notice to the leaser which the ministry did comply with before vacating the premises.
He also confirmed allegations that the ministry will again after 10 months move to another building which is currently under construction at Maseru West. He said the new building which they are occupying was not fully secured, a thing that might compromise its safety.
He was not sure whether the offices will be actually moved at the lapse of the 10-month rental period.
It is expected that the Maseru West building will cost the ministry M500 000.
He further pointed out that they have also paid in full the courier company which helped in moving the property from the Fairways Plaza.
The new courier is yet to be paid when completion of the task is achieved.
After Mpilo Boutique Hotel released a statement in March that it was closing its doors, the ministry expressed plans to hire a larger building that would accommodate all its offices and staff.
The other reason that the ministry showed for moving to Mpilo was the lack of ventilation facilities at Fairways Plaza, insisting that ventilation is highly required for health purposes at this time of the scourge of Covid-19.
The sub-lease signed by the ministry and the MGC and seen by this paper stated that the duration of the agreement was for seven years. It showed it would be renewed for a further period on similar terms and conditions as the two parties would agree.
It had been agreed that February 2021 would be a commencing date despite it being penned down by former principal secretary Tankiso Phapano.
Mpilo Boutique Hotel in its statement said the hotel closed due to the Covid-19 as it could not survive the challenges brought by it.
The ministry started operating from this building at the beginning of February 2021.
