Police told to account for missing exhibits

Monkagedi Gaothobogwe
Staff Writer | Monday May 2, 2011 00:00

This comes after an audit report at the police station in Gaborone last year revealed that money confiscated as exhibits, cellphones and other valuables have not been satisfactorily accounted for by the law enforcers.

Upon auditing the Borakanelo Police Station in Gaborone, the Auditor General found that cash exhibits, amounting to P4,123 and R4,780, which had been impounded from persons who had been found carrying out unlawful transactions in connection with foreign currencies, and other cases amounting to P3,507 involving theft common, had been declared forfeited to the state.

'These exhibits had not been disposed of by payment of the monies into the Consolidated Fund. In this instance, the principle of timely bringing to account of all monies due or accrued to government has not been observed, in breach of the laid down rules,' said the auditor General.

The audit also found that monies held as exhibits from as far back as 2004 to 2006 had not been acquitted from the register, but were not available for audit verification purposes.

The Auditor General said Borakanelo Police had promised to furnish him with evidence of remittances of the cash into the bank, but this has not been done, adding that this therefore remains an outstanding matter.

The Auditor General said Borakanelo Police Station must note that the Police Act says that when lost and found properties deposited with the police are not claimed within three months, they shall be sold and the proceeds paid into the Police Rewards and Fines Fund, or destroyed at the direction of the Commissioner of Police.

In the case of cellphones so deposited, the Commissioner has directed that they shall be destroyed in all cases in a bid to combat crime or dishonesty over these items. 'At the time of the audit inspection, the large numbers of these items had not been properly stored and recorded by the identification numbers to facilitate verification of the physical items against the entries in the registers. In the circumstances, it could not be ascertained whether all the phones deposited had been duly and properly accounted for,' said the Auditor General