Kgoroba Wants Audit On Constituency Fund
Pini Bothoko | Monday June 10, 2019 14:00
Addressing the media recently Kgoroba said when the Fund was introduced in 2017 reasons advanced by government were that it would cater for certain developments that government overlooks.
He said the communities are given reasonable amounts of money so that they choose priority areas where government’s eye cannot see.
Kgoroba conceded that the move was a great decision taken by the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government.
He said the Fund’s guidelines recommended that the community governance structures, Village Development Committee (VDC), councillors and headmen, should oversee the projects and that the final buck will stop with the MPs.
“Kae re ye teng! Everything is muddled up. Nobody from the community governance structures is informed what was spent on what. Everything is still controlled by the same local government,” Kgoroba said.
Furthermore, he stated that the Village Governance Structure (VGS) is suspicious of misappropriation of the funds.
He said he believes that by leaving the VGS out government opened a floodgate for public officers to dip their hands into the Fund.
Not pleased with how the funds have been used, Kgoroba wants an audit on the P10 million for 2017 and the P10 million for 2018.
He admitted projects have been done across the 10 wards in his constituency, but the problem is how the money was spent on those projects.
“Yes I see projects across the constituency wards, but looking at them I do not see the reflection of the P1 million that was allocated to each and every ward,” Kgoroba said.
“I have long requested for the breakdown of expenditure of the projects from council to no avail. This has resulted in me suspecting something might have happened that delays the report on how the funds were exhausted.”
Kgoroba said the VDC and councillors share the same sentiments as him, explaining that they are also not satisfied with how the P1 million was spent in each ward.
He disclosed that he personally contacted the Auditor General (AG) to guide and assist them on this matter.
“My conversation with the AG was so warm, so full of vigour, I had so much hope. But sadly that hope is slowly fading away because it’s been a week now since the AG promised to get back to me, but to this day dololo!” Kgoroba said.
Kgoroba went on to accuse the government system of dishonesty, disrespect and a phobia for good governance. He said if a whole minister does not care about giving feedback to an MP on serious matters how then can a senior government officer like a permanent secretary and the AG do that.
“Behaviours are contagious, what the President does the minister will do and it goes down all the way. You might be surprised why I am bringing the President into this,” Kgoroba said.
“In August 2018 I wrote President Mokgweetsi Masisi a letter regarding the state of affairs at Mogoditshane Sub Land Board.”
He said it is now June 2019 and he is yet to get response from the President. He said he did not even receive acknowledgement that his letter was received. Kgoroba said this was a clear indication of the modus operandi in the government.
Asked about the concerns raised, Mogoditshane Sub- Council Secretary, Daniel Katjinotjiwa conceded to be aware of the MP’s concern and plea for the audit. He said he had an issue that Kgoroba wanted to engage a private audit firm.
“We have internal auditors and I have asked Kgoroba to give us time so that we can engage them to conduct the audit. All of our projects are being audited and even projects of the Fund will be audited,” Katjinotjiwa said.
Katjinotjiwa added they operate with one auditor in the whole sub-district, hence the delay. He further explained that the same auditor at times is tasked to assist other departments.
He said information on how the money was used is always made available to everyone after completion of projects. He finished off by saying the MP should be patient with them.