MASERU – THE Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) board chairman Thabo Khasipe this week told a parliamentary committee that there is widespread rot at the power utility.
“There is a troubling degree of fraud and collusion within the LEC,” Khasipe said, pointing to duplicate transactions involving company employees and external companies.
He said the management informed the board that implicated companies had been given three months to repay the LEC.
However, the board has since resolved that all such transactions must be reversed within 14 days, in line with contract provisions and procedural fairness.
Among the companies implicated is Cell Power, owned by Limpho Tau, a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Khasipe said employees who participated in the scheme would also be investigated and issued show cause letters.
He emphasized the need to recover funds.
“There are suspicions of illegal activity,” he said.
He likened the LEC corruption to a bank overpaying a client.
“The money must be reversed without delay.”
Khasipe said the LEC had uncovered the printing of fraudulent receipts by corrupt employees to help post-paid customers avoid settling their bills.
“That’s clear-cut fraud,” he said.
He said both the customer and the employee must face consequences procedurally and legally because what they did was a crime.
During the session, PAC member Thabiso Lekitla questioned Khasipe’s credibility, asking why he sought a court order to stop the committee’s investigations if he admitted there was indeed corruption.
“Why did you go to court to stop this committee if what we are saying is the truth?” asked Lekitla.
Khasipe reaffirmed his agreement that corruption exists at the LEC and confirmed that the implicated companies were wrongly awarded duplicated electricity units.
He defended the board’s actions, saying it has the authority to instruct management on remedial action.
But such steps must comply with the Lesotho Electricity and Water Authority (LEWA) regulations governing customer relations.
Khasipe said the real crisis at the LEC goes beyond individual acts of fraud.
He told the committee that the fraud that is seen at the LEC is a symptom of a deeper problem, a broken governance system and a completely collapsed internal control mechanism.
Further, the LEC has not conducted any internal audit since 2023, a failure he said is further evidence of a dysfunctional organisation.
“Even if we prosecute offenders, we must also fix the core issues. Two years without internal audit reports is unacceptable,” Khasipe said.
LEC Managing Director, Ntsie Maphathe, also briefed the committee, confirming that action had been taken against the implicated staff.
He said Sello Mothae, one of the officials accused of duplicating units, had been issued a show cause letter.
“His immediate supervisor will decide his fate,” Maphathe added.
He said another official, Bereng Bereng, had already been summoned for a disciplinary hearing for similar offences.
Nkheli Liphoto
