Public Servants Sworn To Secrecy
Staff Writer | Monday February 27, 2017 17:15
According to those who have seen the “Secrecy Form’, it is akin to a penal code document as it can be produced in court to hold the violator who signed it against his deeds.
Last year, a records officer at the Office the President, Abueng Sebola was arrested and later suspended from work after he was caught sharing a confidential document with freelance reporter Sony Serite.
Both would spend the whole weekend in a holding cell, although the charges against the journalist were later dropped, while Sebola was suspended from work
The document shared with the freelance reporter would expose how a private secretary at the Office of the President, one Tsaone Nkarabang, had his medical bills taken care of by the OP after a near fatal accident while on duty with the President some time in 2015 at the Makgadikgadi.
It is the leaking of reports like these that some fear that the secrecy form being made compulsory in the public service right now will ensure they do not see the light of day. BOFEPUSU Deputy Secretary General Kethalefile Motshegwa is of the view that the secrecy Form is against the recently adopted Whistle-blowers’ law that seeks to protect those officers that expose corruption and maladministration in the public service.
“Now we have a Government that passes the Whistleblower Act today, and the next day introduces the secrecy form to guard against whistle-blowing in the public service. It is worrying because one wonders what do they have to hide when the expectation is that corruption in all its manifestations needs to be exposed,” Motshegwa argued.