New brooms at crucial institutions
Mmegi Editor | Wednesday August 16, 2017 11:19
The appointment of the new Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Kgosietsile, the new Attorney General, Abraham Keetshabe and the new Director of the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crimes (DCEC), Victor Paledi came at a time when uncertainty about the future of our beloved country is at stake.
There is rampant abuse of office by those who hold such offices on behalf of the public. Individuals by-pass the laws and laid down procedures and processes to employ their friends/relatives or to procure goods and services from their friends’ companies.
It is our hope that the new men who are assuming the responsibility to provide guidance for public officers; to investigate where possible breaches of such offices; and to prosecute such breaches will execute their duties with due diligence.
We trust that Paledi, who has served in the Botswana Police Service for more than two decades, leaving at the position of deputy commissioner, is a professional who will perform his duties without fear or favour.
The DCEC has for many years been in the news for the wrong reasons such as failing to thoroughly investigate suspected corruption in state enterprises and projects that have cost the country billions of pula.
The unfair allocation of feedlots at the Botswana Meat Commission that enriched a few individuals at the expense of the small farmer is one example that definitely did serious damage to the image of the DCEC.
The national abattoir lost hundreds of millions of pula but to this day, we are still waiting to be told what really transpired and why is nobody held accountable for the mess.
The collapse of the Palapye glass project, which was a joint venture between the Botswana Development Corporation and a Chinese company also comes to mind whenever issues of corruption and complacency of the DCEC are mentioned.
This is a project in which over P500 million was pumped and expected to create over 3,000 jobs, but has yielded naught. Speaking of the AG, the government has lost millions in court cases that were a result of constant fights between public sector trade unions and the government emanating from the latter’s disregard for the Constitution and the Public Service Act.
We implore the three men to do everything in their ability to restore public confidence in the said institutions to make the country a democracy that can attract investors and build good relations with the outside world. These institutions play a pivotal role in ensuring that the rule of law is achieved, as they complement each other in putting the law above everything and everybody.
Today’s thought
“We have a problem when the same people who make the law get to decide whether or not they themselves have broken the law.”
- Michelle Templet