Are interns betraying Botswana's security?
EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer
| Wednesday September 7, 2011 00:00
Sources close to the ministry said 70 percent of its staff complement is made up interns.
An inside source at the ministry has revealed that an intern was recently approached with a US$250,000 (about P1.7 million) bribe by a top army intelligence officer from an African country (name known to Mmegi) in Gaborone in exchange for a highly confidential document detailing Botswana's security status: from the security manpower to the weaponry, military technology and other highly sensitive information that if divulged, would put the country's security in jeopardy. After lengthy investigations, Mmegi located the intern (name withheld), who said the foreign intelligence operative who was in Botswana for an international meeting sent a driver to the said intern with the lucrative proposal.
The driver, who also works with the ministry, was responsible for transporting several top security officials from other countries after hours. The intern said that with 78 interns, the country's security can be breached anytime, especially at this ministry, which is the fulcrum of the nation's security organs like Botswana Defence Force, Police Service, Prisons Service and the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS).
Some suspect that the interns, who are unemployed and are desperately looking for additional income and jobs, might sell government secrets. The source said though they get P1,800 allowance per month, interns do the bulk of the work at the defence ministry, which has only 40 full-time staff complement. Efforts by the interns to get the ministry to hire them as permanent staff, according to the source, '...despite the reasons we gave them that because we handle confidential information and reports on the country's security, we could be a threat if we are not retained, they still refuse to hire us.'
The source has also revealed that what is even more serious is that some whole units are literally run by interns. The source said they also find them in situations where they handle defence and security issues of an international nature.
Some of the interns even report directly to the Permanent Secretary (PS), the source said. The intern has revealed that of the 40 hired staff, most of them are cleaners and drivers, while the top management is lean with a PS, acting minister and a few departmental heads whilst in a lot of positions that need to be filled, the ministry uses interns, claiming there is no money to hire them.
'They told us we can look for employment elsewhere,' said the intern.
The intern has also decried what he considers to be lavish expenditure by the same ministry, which claims to be running on a tight budget. He said the ministry management spends about P5,000 every week on freshly cut flowers that they dispose every five days to receive new ones, while their (management) offices have fully subscribed for DStv with big LED television sets.
The whole situation coupled with the ministry's decision to off-load interns whose two-year period has elapsed, has frustrated the interns at the ministry. So far they are said to have refused to sign confidentiality forms that the Permanent Secretary to the President, Eric Molale, recently ordered that they be filled and signed by government officers.
'We refused to sign because we are not government officers,' said one intern. The intern further stated that the ministry is sitting on a time bomb as sensitive information might leak out as a result of negligence, which is rampant at the ministry.
'All mail coming to our ministry is marked 'confidential', 'secret' and 'for the eyes of the PS only' - or the 'acting minister' and others. But we are always able to lay our hands on these documents. From the driver to the messenger, to the records officer from the human resource officer, to the legal officer and lastly to the PS, the sensitive mail freely goes through all these hands of bitter, broke interns who take home P1,800 every month,' said the source.
The PS in the defence ministry, Segakweng Tsiane, said like any government ministry, they have a good number of interns. 'They are oriented about what their job will entail and are told that in government, there is classified information and that they cannot handle certain information because of its sensitivity,' she said.
Tsiane denied that interns are literally running the ministry and dismissed as untrue that some interns report directly to her.
She said that most of the interns are engaged in human resources, planning and project implementation departments where they are given duties that are far divorced from any confidential information. She said her ministry is security-conscious and would not just leave information lying around.
'Besides, interns as well as everyone (permanent staff), know that if they were to be found divulging secret information, they will be dismissed. It is clear the guidelines as well as those in the Public Service Act also apply to them,' she said.
Regarding expenses on flowers the PS said her ministry receives international visitors daily and has to present a good image, hence the expenditure on flowers.
'It is also true that we have television sets. We need them to scope what is going on around the world by watching news. We even have radios to hear what our customers are saying about our service. We even read newspapers, both local and international,' she said.