New stand-alone department christened, allotted P19m
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday February 14, 2022 06:00
The EID will be responsible for monitoring the interests, income, assets and liabilities of any category of persons, to detect and prevent corruption, money laundering and acquisition of property from proceeds of other offences.
The directorate will be headed by a director-general and has two major divisions, each headed by a director. The divisions are monitoring and legal enforcement, and asset declaration and management.
The department will be analysing and verifying information in the declaration, keeping the declarations in safe custody, whilst maintaining registers of persons who have declared on time and those who have been issued notices by the directorate as well as persons upon whom administrative, criminal and other penalties have been imposed for failing to comply with the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Act.
“The directorate will also issue notices to persons who fail to declare on time. Impose administrative penalties on persons who fail to declare on time, referring matters to relevant authorities for appropriate action, including criminal action, where necessary and investigating suspected or alleged non-compliance with the Act,” reads a statement.
The ones that are supposed to declare involve politicians, administrative and judicial parts of government and private sector and others as may be the case.
In politics, those who are supposed to declare are President, Vice President, former presidents, Ministers and Assistant Ministers, Members of Parliament, Councillors, Leader of the Opposition, Council Chairperson/Mayor, Speaker of Parliament and Deputy Speaker.
At Judiciary, these include Chief Justice, President of the Court of Appeal, President of the Industrial Court, Judges of the Industrial Court and High Courts, Registrar and Master of the High Court of Appeal, Registrar of the Industrial Court, Magistrate and an officer appointed by the Judicial Service Commission and some members of the public service.
The department was established by Section 4 of the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Act, No. 12 of 2019, as amended by Act No.1 of 2020. The directorate started its operations in January 2020 and has been receiving declarations since February 2020.