BR simulator for employee training white elephant

Most members of the Botswana Railways (BR) management team have told the ongoing board of inquiry that a simulator, intended for training employees, especially train drivers, had been gathering dust as it did not meet the required specifications.

Director of Finance and Corporate Services, Ms Chelesile Malele informed the board that the simulator did not meet the desired specifications and there was nothing that could be done with it.

“What I heard is that it was not working,” she said in response to one of the board members Mr Gofaone Morweng’s question on if she had heard anything about the simulator and that it did not meet the specifications.

Mr Morweng also asked if the management had any intention to dispose the simulator, to which Ms Malele responded that they still had not decided what to do with it.

BR internal audit and risk manager, Mr Koonyatse Tamasiga also admitted to being aware of the simulator and that it could not serve its purpose because it did not meet the specifications.

“It is not doing what it is supposed to do,” he said, adding that it appeared that the specifications were not correct from the onset, and therefore after its procurement, a forensic audit was instituted and recommendations were made”.

BR engineering manager, Mr Baboloki Phuthego said he knew about the non-functional simulator.

When responding to one of the board members, Mr Bartholomew Seitlhamo, Mr Phuthego further indicated that the simulator was bought between 2010 and 2011, adding that at some point, he was able to play a sample track.

He said the deficiency that they identified was that they had to input the BR tracks and at that time, he was told by the operations department that doing that ‘would be more expensive than the simulator itself’.

Although some members of the BR management team admitted that they were aware of the simulator, some, like train and wagon manager, Mr Palalani Mari, denied knowledge of it.

“I am not aware of the simulator”, he said, when responding to Mr Seitlhamo.

Mr Seitlhamo was surprised that Mr Mari was not aware of such, despite the fact that it was a gadget that he was supposed to use to train his supervisees.

“We are speaking about an important asset to BR, but you just learnt about it a few months ago?” he wondered to Mr Mari, who had indicated that he got to know about the simulator through the board of inquiry’s assessment.