Unions halt gov�t tender for deduction codes
Staff Writer | Tuesday December 13, 2016 15:46
The unions, BOPEU, BOSETU and BTU through the company they own, BOTUSAFE, approached the courts on urgency to seek for an order to interdict the decision by government to float the tender for a single central registry that violated the standing agreement between BOTUSAFE and government.
According to the urgent application, government should have consulted the trade unions and given them some notice in order to proceed to float the tender. Justice Tshepo Motswagole agreed with the unions and interdicted the tendering process pending the outcome of the return date of the same case in February 2017. The introduction of a single central registry would hand these two companies a killer blow in that their business would shut down, ultimately closing down on unions’ alternative sources of income. But more importantly, this mean that the union businesses would have to apply for deduction codes at the Single Central Registry and there is high possibility of denying them the stop order facility hence starving the unions of alternative sources of income.
BOTUSAFE, a company owned by public sector trade unions for purposes of managing deduction codes, claims the agreement unions entered into with government, gives it the right to deduction codes for life.
The public tender, floated in the Government Gazette invites tenders for the development and implementation of a Payroll Deductions Management System (‘PDMS’). The tender was scheduled to close on December 16 this year. In their urgent application, BOTUSAFE argues that the introduction of the Single Central Registry in terms of the tender has the effect of rendering the current Central Registry Agreement inoperative as BOTUSAFE will cease to function as a central registry and be reduced, at best, to a service provider status.
BOTUSAFE argues that the government’s action is a repudiation of the agreement and is therefore unlawful as the agreement between BOTUSAFE and government was to be one in perpetuity. BOTUSAFE also argues that the agreement has no exit clauses that would entitle either party to terminate the agreement in the absence of breach by simply tendering notice.
BOTUSAFE also says according to the agreement, their role is understood to not just be merely one where it facilitates deduction codes, but to be one where BOTUSAFE plays an integral role in the smooth and efficient transacting of the lending architecture and regime facilitated by government to assist public officers who form a majority of the formally employed working class.
BOTUSAFE further argues that the conclusion that the agreement subsists for perpetuity is bolstered by the spelt-out expectations on BOTUSAFE to promote and empower citizen companies and trade unions.
“The micro-lending sector is identified as one of such sectors that play an important role in the lives of Batswana, and for which a system should be set up to facilitate deductions arising out of the indebtedness of client civil servants. It is with that intention and understanding that the government entered into the agreement with BOTUSAFE and Lesaka because these two entities are the only ones that bear all the hallmarks of what the government intended to achieve through the agreement. As set out above in the background, the applicant has played and still continues to play a pivotal as well as public interest role in the country.”