Last month, Parliament approved a motion brought by MP for Molepolole North, Arafat Khan, to audit the AFCON process after Botswana spent P65 million on the botched bid. The costs were largely driven up by a bid book which cost P61 million and is expected to be a subject of close scrutiny. The government, through the Ministry for State President, has launched a wider forensic audit to probe irregular spending in all government ministries and state-owned enterprises under previous administrations. The audit will focus on the last 10 years, between 2014 and 2024.
The forensic audit has begun while the parliamentary process is expected to kick-off soon following reports that the National Assembly speaker, Dithapelo Keorapetse, has instructed the Clerk of the House to set up structures for the special select committee. It was unclear if the forensic audit will not cover the AFCON bid, which is now under a parliamentary process. However, the Minister for State President, Moeti Mohwasa, this week told MmegiSport that the parliamentary process does not necessarily exclude the bid from the forensic audit. "The forensic audit can cover any government department or any state-owned entity or any public officer whether in central government, local government, or SOE or companies wholly-owned by government or where government has a 50% shareholding," Mohwasa said.
