Members of the Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Bodies and Public Enterprises have poured scorn on the decision by Botswana Energy Regulatory Board (BERA) to decline issuing an exclusive license for importation of petroleum products to Botswana Oil. Botswana Oil Acting Chief Executive Officer Meshack Tshekedi told the committee that BERA rejected their application despite them submitting strong reasons to justify their move. Among the reasons given by BERA for declining the application, Tshekedi said, was that Botswana Oil was not technically ready for the importation mandate. “We applied for the license and we made it very clear that we do not wish to put the country in jeopardy from day one by jumping to 100% importation of petroleum products. So we initially asked for 50 percent of the volume requirements and then said from there, the principals can satisfy themselves in our capability to handle the importation,” Tshekedi said. According the Acting CEO, another reason given by BERA was that Botswana Oil was not financially capable of handling the mandate. “According BERA, their interpretation was that when they assessed our capability for the 100 % importation one of the areas they highlighted was that we do not have enough storage.…