Botswana loses billions to corruption - Magistrate

NELSON DIRENG
Correspondent | Thursday June 24, 2010 00:00

 

He told a prisons anti-corruption workshop on Tuesday in Gaborone that the calculation is based on the fact that his court room alone is currently dealing with economic crimes amounting to over P500 million.  Moroka however said he believes his estimate is low compared to what the government must be losing. 'Considering that this is an estimate from my court room alone, one wonders how much the amount would be, combining economic corruption cases from courts all over the country,' he said. He said corruption brings numerous social ills and cripples the economy as the beneficiaries are individuals.

He said corruption robs children of their future because the money involved is usually large enough to build schools or hospitals. 'Corruption also hinders the country's national development and makes the country uncompetitive,' he said.

Moroka said luring investors to economically unstable countries is impossible.  Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crimes (DCEC) training and development officer, Jackson Madzima however said the corruption status of Botswana is better compared to most African countries.

'There were 1,926 corruption cases reported to the DCEC last year and only about 35 percent were classified for investigation,' he explained. Madzima said people normally confuse corruption with maladministration.

He said the most cases are not considered for investigation because they can be solved within an organisation. However, the DCEC does not completely sideline such issues because at times there are corruption cases, which need further investigation. 'Such issues are stored in our referral archives till more reports evidencing corruption are availed,' he said.

Madzima however said Botswana's low ranking in corruption does not mean there are no internal problems.   He said being lowly ranked comes as a disadvantage as the international corruption bodies do not thoroughly asses the country meaning some issues pass without being noticed. 

'This however needs to be dealt with at managerial level by people who are not willing to compromise their botho, integrity, accountability, discipline, fairness and transparency among other values,' he said.