Swedish trip fails, cllrs keep T&S
Setshego Gaobolwe | Thursday June 26, 2014 14:34
Marulamantsi councillor, Kgomotso Lekau, charged that the local authority was promoting corruption, as the Swedish trip funds were still unaccounted for, amidst reports that the funds were diverted to election campaigns.
“Some councillors were supposed to depart for Sweden but failed to go and they are still holding onto the allowances given to them,” she said, debating the Mayor’s address.
“They failed to travel to Sweden but did not bring back the per diem that was given to them by the council.
“It’s high time those funds are returned because they do not belong to them.”
Lekau asked City Mayor, Haskins Nkaigwa, to intervene as the funds had been used for political campaigns.
“The councillors took the council’s money and instead of going to Sweden as expected, they failed to make the trip and instead went ahead and bought campaign material,” she said.
More financial matters spilt into the public space, as former Mayor and Tsogang councillor, Veronica Lesole said the local authority had a tendency of “dishing out” figures without clearly disaggregating them for better accountability and understanding.
She said a better breakdown of figures would help councillors understand where the funds were sourced from and how they were used.
“The P250,000 that was raised during the 25th anniversary celebration should be accounted for fully,” she said.
“The mayor only told us that the amount was raised from different stakeholders without giving details of those stakeholders and how much each pledged.
“We cannot be told that such and such a figure was raised from stakeholders and not be given how that figure was reached.
“We have to clearly know that indeed that was the amount raised without any doubt.”
The debates around the local authority and finances come as Nkaigwa told the full Council that low pay in political offices was a catalyst for corruption. Opening the full Council on Monday, Nkaigwa said political office should be able to attract quality through improved working and living conditions to “lessen corruption and greed”.
“Politicians should be paid accordingly so as to be motivated in order to be able to help in promoting and growing the democracy of the country,” he told councillors.
“There is a need to provide councillors with decent housing so as to allow them to live a dignified life as well as have improved working conditions.”
Nkaigwa said the Council has been lobbying government to increase salaries for civil servants by a reasonable percentage to curb corruption, adding that for a middle-income country, it was unfair that Batswana were still struggling to make ends meet.