In fact, Augustine Makgonatsotlhe almost labelled the office as a useless waste of taxpayer’s money. His bone of contention is that the government is not responsive to any form of enquiry and that the flow of information is of less assistance to the operations and mandate of his office. With his experience in government, having served in different capacities in senior positions, including being Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security (MDJS) Makgonatsotlhe’s remarks should not be taken lightly because he has close contacts in the civil service and the view is that he should not face any resistance when looking for information. Under the leadership of former minister Ndelu Seretse, MDJS was one of the few ministries with a strategy to share information with the public through the media.
However, these efforts were never enough because of the stringent control of government information flow by the Office of the President. Several savingrams and directives have been unleashed in the last eight years with the sole purpose of making it difficult for other institutions to access information in public offices. Parliamentarians have in the past complained that they are also subjected to harassment when seeking information, which they can use to make informed contributions, debates and decisions in Parliament. This has made it easy for ministers to provide false or misleading information in Parliament and other forums such as kgotla meetings and press conferences; corruption has become rampant and nobody is held accountable; while institutions such as Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crimes have been rendered obsolete .
