He who does not grease the palm suffers - Lesetedi

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Friday October 15, 2010 00:00

 

'It negatively impacts on service delivery, for instance in awards of contracts because service delivery quality and competitiveness may be compromised through deliberate disregard of such values for the sake of underhand considerations of which the receiver of the award is beholden to the benefactor. The result is often shoddy delivery of services at times at exorbitant cost to the economy of the country,' he warned

Lesetedi was speaking at the beginning of a two-day conference organised by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crimes (DCEC) on Thursday.

He said that service delivery is the core of the social contract where the need for transparency in the provision of health facilities, justice, education and other basic needs of people are provided on clear cut lines of access on agreed and determinable parameters.

The conference was organised for the civil society and its theme was 'Corruption As a Human Rights Issue'.'For as long as a society condones corrupt practices and such practices are able to take root and seep through the wider strata of the fabric of society it taints the values and mores of good governance,' he said. The High Court judge cautioned that what the public perceives is likely to accept as a reality of life.

'For those either without the right connections or the means to grease the corrupt hand, life becomes unbearable and rules become irrelevant. Positive values such as merit, quality, fairness, the rule of law and justice become illusory,' he said.

He further cautioned that such an environment breeds uncertainty and impacts on the rule of law.

Lesetedi said that where corruption is rampant, rights become privileges obtainable only at the grace of greasing the corrupt hand.

'When the corrupt become more affluent, brazen and more powerful with impunity, the spiral of vice gathers momentum the society gets caught up in the circle and things start falling apart'.

He commended the DCEC for doing its job saying their efforts have placed Botswana at the position of some of the least corrupt countries in the world. He said it should fight on and not allow any room for complacency.

He said the organisation should engage civil society in educating the public on the need to have zero tolerance for corruption and it can play a proactive role in the wider fight against a culture of impunity, wherever it may exist, by reporting anybody involved in the crime.

He said that while Botswana is ranked among the least corrupt countries in the world, 'we must benchmark ourselves against the best in the world'.

For her part, Director of DCEC, Rose Seretse, said whenever corruption occurs it brings the harsh consequences on the poor and least privileged members of society.

'This defeats your purpose of ensuring that every child goes to school; every poor man has access to the court of law; every patient has access to health facilities and that everyone has a roof over their head. Corruption has both a discriminatory purpose and a discriminatory effect. It deters those who are not corrupt from enjoying their human rights,' she said.

She cited incidents where people who have no money to bribe their way to the tertiary education may end up being unfairly denied their right to education. The conference ends today.