FRANCISTOWN: Corruption still remains a serious barrier to the economic and general growth of Francistown, the city mayor Sylivia Muzila has said.
Opening the ordinary full council meeting yesterday Muzila said that despite measures taken in recent years to combat corruption in the city nothing much has improved.
“It is disappointing to note that 28 cases of corruption were investigated between March 2014 and November 2014. These cases involved bribery to obtain public service, abuse of office by public officers, conflict of interest and contract fraud. This indicates that corruption is still a problem in our city and needs to be contained,” she said.
The mayor did not state the outcomes of the investigations but said that the cases were recorded at various government organisations in the city.
Muzila noted that all stakeholders should play an active role in the eradication of corruption in the city. “Corruption stalls the economic growth of the city,” she said adding that government is also developing and enforcing anti-corruption laws to make it easier to detect corruption in the city and the country in general. Meanwhile in 2013 the Francistown City Council (FCC) was labelled among the most organisations that have been rocked by rampant corruption in the city. This was after an internal audit was done at the organisation.
Fourty-seven cases of corruption related crime were recorded in 2013 from January to December 2013 at FCC alone.
In recent months the city has also heightened campaigns against corruption. Even last year the International Anti-corruption Day Commemoration was celebrated in Francistown, in an event in which the then Director of Department of Public Service Management, Carter Morupisi expressed worry about instances of corruption in the city.
In another revelation the city mayor said that the P900 million Francistown-Tonota road is progressing well despite a few challenges.
“ The project is at 65.9 percent complete against the targeted 69.1%,” she said.
Last year December it was revealed the road is behind because of rain and relocation of some services to pave way for the construction.
“ On the same note the final design of the Thapama Hotel Interchange was approved on the 5th of January 2015 and the tender has been awarded to China Railways Seventh Group at a cost of P121 million.”
The mayor noted that construction of the much-anticipated interchange has just begun and is expected to take 18 months.
