Five suspended on corruption allegations
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday October 10, 2022 06:00
According to information gathered by Mmegi, the five employees including a Director were suspended after P24 million was used to drill just three boreholes under the Livestock Management and Infrastructure Development (LIMID) programmme.
“Reports were made alleging that the employees could have benefitted from the money as it was thought to be exorbitant. They have since been suspended while the Ministry is investigating the matter.
The Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) is also involved to get to the bottom of the matter,” an inside source said. Minister for Agriculture, Fidelis Molao would not be drawn into discussing the specific matter.
“We always receive reports on allegations of corruption and misconduct. I cannot discuss the matter as investigations are still ongoing. When we receive such reports, we follow set procedure to get to the bottom of the issue.
Most importantly, we use these to identify and close gaps to avoid any leakages in the future,” he said. Molao called on Batswana to remain confident that they would ensure that they are assisted in accordance with the programme.
He encouraged Batswana to report if they had any suspicions so processes could be improved to nip any rot. The DCEC has also since confirmed that it is investigating the matter. “The Directorate would like to confirm that, it is investigating a case where five officers from Ministry of Agriculture were implicated in the drilling of boreholes under the Livestock Management and Infrastructure Development (LIMID) programe. The said employees have since been suspended,” public relations officer, Otshepeng Otlaadisang said.
According to a 2016 Daily News report, by February that year, about 204 boreholes out of 423 approved applications were drilled through the LIMID programme since its inception in September 2010.
The then assistant Minister of Agriculture, Kgotla Autlwetse said the drilled boreholes cost over P11 million. A source who did not want to be named from a drilling company expressed shock at the P24 million figure. “A 100 metre deep borehole can be completed for as little as P30,000. The deepest which could go up to 450 metres will not cost anything more than P500,000.00.
That includes casing and other services that comes with drilling the borehole,” she said. The LIMID project is composed of animal husbandry and fodder support, water development, cooperative poultry abattoirs for small-scale poultry producers, small stock, guinea fowl and Tswana chickens. The support schemes are available to Botswana citizens only.
LIMID has components of monitoring success indicators and a graduation component which spells out how farmers will graduate out of the support. The Ministry of Agriculture was given the sixth largest share of the proposed Development Budget, at P959 million or 5.84 percent. “The proposed budget caters for the revamped Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD) which has been re-designed to be a more efficient and sustainable programme.
The budget will also continue to support projects such as small stock, piggeries, poultry and dairy production, beekeeping, horticulture and fish-farming under the LIMID Programme to facilitate value chains,” Finance Minister, Peggy Serame said when delivering her speech in February this year.