We thank Minister Motsumi but......

| Wednesday October 27, 2010 00:00

In the last session of parliament there was a protracted debate on declaration of assets and liabilities motion. When Gaborone Central Member of Parliament, Dumelang Saleshando decided to bring a private member's bill to parliament, a polarized national assembly prevailed on MP Saleshando to shelve his motion and wait on minister Motsumi's promise to bring a similar bill to parliament. Understandably, there was widespread doubt on whether Motsumi would make good on her promise. The bill has been circulating in parliament over the last 14 years with very little movement. At various stages MPs Phandu Skelemani, Botsalo Ntuane, Dumelang Saleshando, Ponatshego Kedikilwe and a host of others have attempted to resuscitate the bill into law with very little success.

While Motsumi should be congratulated for bringing the bill back to parliament the most critical thing at this stage is whether the bill will address all the concerns and perceptions that Batswana had about white collar crime. We must at the outset mention that the bill is a step in the right direction. Even though there are still some aspects of the bill that can and should be improved.

Everybody accepts that ministers, MPs, councillors and other senior government officials, who come into contact with government plans - before the public gets to hear about these plans - need to be targeted by this bill. We should not lose sight of the fact that these senior public officials could leverage their positions to plunder state resources and this should be addressed.

The other concern is whether the clerk of the national assembly is the right person to administer the declaration and liabilities register. We believe the office of the clerk does not have the capacity to do so. The bill could bring in oversight institutions such as the DCEC or the Financial Intelligence Organisation to play some role in the administration of the register. The other concern is with respect to public access. It seems the public will have no access to the register and yet they are expected to raise a complaint with the Registrar whenever they see anything amiss. This is an anomaly, we believe the important aspect of this exercise is for the public to have access to the register. Otherwise how are they expected to have faith in the system when they do not have access to the register. Transparency demands that the public have access to the register, surely our public leaders should not have anything to hide and that is why they chose public life, where there is public glare.

When parliament resumes business in November we believe they will look at the sanctions imposed on those who flout the code. Surely a fine of up to P10,000 cannot be deemed adequate for someone who deliberately fails to disclose 'gifts' or kickbacks of say for instance P100,000 or P1 million knowing that he or she could easily mend the error by paying a mere P10,000.

The minister's bill is watered down but we hope parliament will fix it to reflect the good intentions of the bill and our democratic aspirations.

                                                  Today's thought

                        This is done in the interests of transparency and accountability.

                                             - Minister Ethel Motsumi