Inside the tapes (Part 2)
| Friday July 18, 2014 13:47
DJM: Apart from the first company that we mentioned, that name you can’t remember that you used for purchasing shares and the tourism company and the quarry company that own shares in Belabela, are there any other companies?
DGK: I don’t remember. I don’t remember any
DJM: We have been told about a company called Silver Shadows
DGK: Yep thats the one, that is the first one.
DJM: That is the first one that you couldn’t remember the name, so Silver Shadows. Alright and I don’t know if I clarified this; has that been generating any income, or not know that it did
DGK: That’s dividends. Yes
DJM: And the money goes back to the account. Right. I just want to ask about bank accounts. You have got the bank account at Barclays Bank that you get paid your wage into, I assume that Silver Shadows has a bank account
DGK: At Stanbic Bank
DJM: At Stanbic. Uuum... does it only have one account?
DGK: Yes, that’s the only one
DJM:And OWS?
Dgk: Nothing
Djm: No bank account. And what about the quarry company?
DGK: No bank account
DJM: Ok, so you have an association with your Barclays Bank account fund, your Stanbic Bank account, are there any bank accounts that you have in association with? And I am thinking Botswana and outside Botswana.
DGK: No outside Botswana. Only was when I was a student, I had a student account in London and that is the only one.
DJM: Is it still an active account?
DGK: Well, it is because it only have how much? a thousand pounds, yes..at the...what you call?
DJM: Have you used it in the last ten years
DGK: Well, I was a student in 2005, 2006 and even now I used to, because when I left school that is where my stipend was going in so what I used to do was to draw money from it but I don’t. The last time I used it so that they see it is not dormant and maybe I will draw an amount from it and then just a small amount so that they see that its not dormant.
DJM: Can I ask what bank its with?
DGK: Barclays Bank
DJM: Barlcays again. Ok inside are there any bank accounts that you are associated with inside Botswana and outside Botswana. Or really there is just the three bank accounts?
DJM: Do you have an accountant who manages your tax and who is that?
DGK: Yes. John Little, Mr John Little he is a British citizen
DJM: How do you spell his surname?
DGK: Little for small
RNS: Little
DJM: And he is here in Botswana and he does the accounting for your personal finances?
DGK: No, for the Silver Shadows because the persona finances, really I didn’t think that I needed an accountant for it.
DJM: I have an accountant back home who does my tax. Because I am too lazy to do it myself. And he is here in Botswana? Right... uum ! just as there has been in your work as the Director of the DIS, has there been any blending of your funds with Government funds? What I am talking about is, have you been required to pay money out of your personal funds for the purposes of the DIS? And has money from the DIS been paid into your account for any particular reason?
DGK: I used to have an account which really wasn’t my personal account, it was called, sort of , a contribution account which the boss is to have when he was the MP.
DJM: And the boss you are talking about is HE? Because when you are Director General it is hard to say who is the boss
OGK: So then when people used to donate money, lets say, or what funding they may request I didn’t want that to go into my personal account and then there was a contribution account and then after I left the Office of the President, then the account was dormant. I just let it like that and at times, when we want to pay, I spoke to my banker at the Bank maybe the South African Revenue Services, maybe the ATS IAit Traffic 2nd Horticulture: so we don’t have an account at the office. So maybe they would need Rands and so forth then I said they can use that account, that account can be used by them and I am not going to put any money nor anything on it.
DJM: So this is the Northern Development trust?
DGK: No, no, no.; the contribution account. I said my office can because it’s no longer a contribution account. It was never closed, so I said my office can use that to change money from Pula to Rands for them to pay the South Africans- let it be the South African Revenue Services, let it be ATS and so forth; for our covert aircraft because we don’t have an account in-house. Even one day, they asked the director if we could use their account to change money from it so that we pay them because they wanted Rands. That is the only time I remember.
DJM: I’m just little bit confused, this contribution account it wasn’t generated by you, it was established before you were the Director General of the DIS ?
DGK: Yes it was in what? 1997, 90 something when people would say, “can we contribute?” lets say, towards buying of wheelchairs and so forth. That was before I was the DG. And since being the DG, I have never used it. I kept it open and I was not putting any monies in it nor drawing any monies from it.