Mayor alarmed by high levels of corruption

Patricia Edwin | Tuesday February 25, 2014 23:46

Kgalajwe said during the period from January 2013 to December 2013 a total of 140 allegations of corruption were reported to the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC).

The mayor was addressing a session of the last ordinary full council meeting of the financial year 2013/2014 on Monday.

“Of these 140 allegations, 93, which means 66.4 percent were either referred to other institutions or advice was given to sources because they did not warrant a corruption case to be instituted,” he said.

He said that 33.6 percent were classified for investigations as corruption cases.

He further said that of these 140 cases, 124 were allegations received from known sources while the remaining 16 were received from anonymous sources.

“The 47 matters investigated by the DCEC covered crimes such as bribery or corruption by public officers, conflict of interest, assistance in regard to contract, money laundering and cheating of public revenue,” he added.

Kgalajwe further stated that the most prevalent were bribery or corruption by public officers with 33 cases followed by conflict of interest with six and five for assistance in regard of contract, while the remaining crimes constituted 6.4 percent of the cases.

Kgalajwe said this was a frightening situation.

He pleaded with heads of departments to seriously take corruption prevention measures in their respective organisations as their key objective by timely acting and responding to administrative matters for their attention.

“They must ensure timely access to premises and information required for investigations, promote whistle-blowing in their organisations by putting in place mechanisms for efficient and effective detecting, reporting and addressing wrongdoing,” said the mayor.

He added that sources should also be encouraged to identify themselves because in that way they will be given feedback, thus enabling investigating officers to easily contact them.

“They should be reminded that they are legally protected from intimidation by any person for reporting a reasonable suspicion. HoDs should be requested to be vigilant and responsive to the prevalent forms of corruption in the City of Francistown,” said Kgalajwe.

He advised DCEC to engage in public education campaigns and enlist support in efforts to reduce corruption.

“Organisations are requested to take part in these campaigns when they are invited. Organisations are also free to invite DCEC to participate in some of their forums to further relay anti-corruption education and messages,” he added.