Corruption on the increase

MARTIN NYIRENDA
Correspondent | Friday November 30, 2007 00:00

A Government appointed a consultant, de Speville has said that the causes of corruption include economic development, get rich mentality, and imported foreign business people (small and medium enterprises).

Speaking at the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) stakeholders' meeting held on Wednesday this week, de Speville said that the consequences and costs of corruption include reversing economic growth, weakening democratic institutions, hampering socio-economic development, reducing trust on rule of law, unfair competition, huge costs of poor contract performance, among others.

The stakeholders' meeting was meant to discuss the drafting on an Anti-Corruption Action Plan for Botswana based analysis of causes, costs, and consequences of corruption.

The study was designed to help identify the causes of corruption in Botswana, measure costs and also to look at the consequences of corruption and combat all these. It was also aimed at coming up with a working anti-corruption strategy.

In his presentation,  DCEC Director, Tymon Katlholo said that the objectives of the workshop was to present findings following an extensive consultation to review the defence of the country against corruption.

'The study sought to examine the causes, costs and consequences of corruption in Botswana - the objective was to draw up an action for the next foreseeable future'.

He contended that there was need for occasional assessment of the corruption problem benchmarked against efforts to constantly monitor progress, adding that collective approach to arrest corruption will assist stakeholders to retain the position of being at the cutting edge of anti-corruption initiatives.

'The fight against corruption requires coordination, collaboration, cooperation and participation by all parties'.

Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Botswana and SADC, Ambassador Paul Malin said that the EU supports government of Botswana's drafting of Anti-Corruption Action Plan and Strategy. 

'The level of confidence the EU shows in Botswana is based on our assessment of good management of funds, transparent accounting and regular reporting. The Government's commitment to maintaining and improving its good record is vital to allow us to continue to show a high level of confidence.

'It is for this reason that we have welcomed government request to support the DCEC, the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board and the High court. These are all elements in the commitments made by Government. As part of the progress of programming European Union assistance to Botswana for the period 2008 to 2013, the European Commission drew up a governance profile for Botswana, a process involving government and civil society. This was a very useful exercise for us. It brought out the many strengths of Botswana and allowed a better understanding of the weaknesses. We attach great importance to the Anti-Corruption Action Plan Strategy'.

Minister of Justice, Defence and Security, Phandu Skelemani said that the government has realized that the country cannot be complacent hence decided to review the achievements of the fight against corruption which has been led by the DCEC, to make any mid course corrections that may be necessary and plan the future of national strategy for the protection of the nation's integrity. He added that effort should be put in place to ensure that the country's rankings do not further decline, taking in account that the country is growing.

Skelemani said that low political competition, low and uneven economic growth, weak civil society, absence of institutional mechanism to deal with corruption were some of the features characterising corruption.

'Declining morals and ethics, greed, weak legislative and judicial systems, unnecessary bureaucratic red tape, bad socio-economic conditions, weak checks and balances were the main causes of corruption in different environment. We need to promote ethics, whistle blowing, update any outdated policies and legislation, promote transparency and adequate information sharing, and have proper channels to deal with issues of conflict of interest'.