Prosecution looms as forensic audit flags 80 senior officials
Larona Makhaiza | Tuesday May 5, 2026 15:25
Last year Botswana commissioned a forensic affidavit report to probe issues of embezzlement, corruption and fraud, among others in public finances between April 2014 and March 2024. Alvarez & Marsal Middle East Limited was appointed by government to provide forensic audit services.
The much-anticipated forensic audit report has revealed significant irregularities in governance, fraud and corruption but notably, the public summary stops short of naming or directly implicating any individuals.
The full forensic audit was commissioned at a cost P60 million, covering 30 State Owned Enterprises and other government arms. President Duma Boko received the summary report last week comprising of 68 pages.
Addressing the media today, Mohwasa emphasised that while the audit uncovered serious concerns within institutional processes, the summary did not identify specific people as targets of wrong doing.
Instead, the summary presents a broad overview of systemic weaknesses and procedural failures that may have enabled misconduct to occur.
“This summary report does not identify by name any person or entity suspected of involvement in fraud or those suspected of involvement in fraud, misappropriation, corruption, collusion or related conduct,” Mohwasa revealed.
He added: “The summary report does not replace or duplicate the underlying entity-specific forensic audit reports. Those reports contain specific findings, detailed factual analysis, supporting evidence and material relevant to potential investigative, recovery, disciplinary or legal action.” The summary states that the secrecy around names is done to protect the integrity of the audit.
“To protect the integrity of potential future action, these entity specific reports are not being published as part of this summary report.”
However, Mohwasa has promised that, if need be, people will be prosecuted when the time comes.
“The summary report does not have names of people who committed corruption but suspected cases of corruption, fraud, embezzlement will now be referred to prosecutors for potential prosecution and all matters of criminality will be subjected to further investigation,” he said.
The summary report states that 80 senior office holders have been referred for special investigation with current and former ministers, deputy ministers, permanent secretaries, CEOs and board members amongst the names.
A significant trend within the referrals was the recurrence of certain individuals, counterparties, relationships and patterns across multiple matters, entities, and time periods as well as similarities in decision-making patterns across different departments, ministers and entities, the summary says.