Gov’t admits to Whistleblowing Act flaws
Mompati Tlhankane | Tuesday March 22, 2022 07:00
The aim of the law when it was passed in 2016 was amongst other things to protect whistle blowers who inform primarily law enforcement agencies and oversight institutions.
As a result, Mthimkhulu said as government they are fully admitting to certain faults because there is an impediment in the Act.
He observed that although the Act’s application could be extended to private enterprises the scope is limited in application because it focuses more on public entities as opposed to private ones.
“The Act does not protect anonymous reporters. Challenges have prompted a move by the authorised persons as per the Whistleblowing Act to seek an amendment of the Act and address and identify challenges adequately,” he revealed. Mthimkhulu added that when a new law is introduced there will always be challenges. He said during implementation there were challenges that were encountered by authorised persons.
“The authorised persons have realised that there is a problem which proves to be a stumbling block, but in the long run it can be corrected.”
Mthimkhulu pointed out that since the inception of the Act in 2016 its implementation has been with successes and challenges.
He said the successes are that the Act has improved on inter agency cooperation between government and stakeholders. Mthimkhulu however said he could not commit on the timeframe they would bring the suggested amendments to Parliament.
He said generally the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), as one of the authorised persons to handle whistleblowing reports, latter has received reports from known and unknown sources.
Mthimkhulu revealed that the DCEC has received 934 reports from whistleblowers since the inception of the law.
He also indicated that of the 934 received reports only 284 were classified for investigation. He said the remainder of these accounts were for either closures or referrals to other departments for developments.
The junior minister added that protection against victimisation of a whistleblower will effect if only such a disclosure is made to an authorised person in terms of the act.
Mthimkhulu said this is an Act that requires implementation from eight institutions namely Botswana Police Service, Botswana Defence Force, Botswana Unified Revenue Service, Financial Intelligence Agency, Competition and Consumer Authority, Directorate of Intelligence and Security, Botswana Prisons Service, Ombudsmen and Auditor general.
He therefore clarified that the DCEC is not a centralised point where statistics relevant to the Act are kept. He said going forward they want to decide on a centralised point where whistleblowers can report.
Mthimkhulu was responding to a question in Parliament from Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang who was requesting an update on successes and shortcomings in implementing the Whistleblowing Act of 2016.
In terms of protecting anonymous sources, Gobotswang said these stumbling blocks in the Act should have long been removed.