The Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) withheld a Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) garnishee order worth more than P14 million for nearly seven weeks while continuing to pay the contractor BURS had flagged for outstanding taxes, documents reveal. Following the violation, and in a move that has cost the taxpayer P7,5 million in unpaid tax revenue, WUC later pushed for the amount to be cut by half.
Documents seen by this publication show that BURS issued the first garnishee order on May 9, 2025 against payments due to one of the companies implementing WUC’s Smart Prepaid Water Metering (SPWM) project. The order required WUC to divert P14 706 681.11 to the tax authority instead of releasing the money to the contractor.
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