06 Jun 2014

Batswana have been called to team up and kick corruption out of the country.

Launching the Ministerial Anti-Corruption Policy in Mahalapye this week, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Peter Siele, requested  institutions to team up with their customers to make an impact in tackling corruption.

Mr Siele said the Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) alone could not stamp out corruption and as such, partners in development must scan their environment to add on to the existing innovative ways of combating corruption and its related offences.

He said even though Botswana had an excellent record with Transparency International, which continued to rank Botswana among the least corrupt countries in Africa and the world over, it did not mean people should relax.

He called on every Motswana to put out and prevent occurrences and incidences of corruption. He encouraged stakeholders with his ministry to familiarise themselves with the Anti-Corruption Policy to ensure compliance.

Mr Siele said corruption existed in Botswana and urged people to always report incidences of corruption to relevant authorities. He said if efforts were not made to uproot it, Botswana would soon be rendered a corrupt country.

“There are traces of corrupt practices here and there,” he said. “Therefore concerted efforts of all stakeholders are required to eliminate corruption elsewhere.”

Mr Siele stated that according to DCEC reports; the level of corruption in the Ministry of Local Government was 25 per cent in 2009, 19 per cent in 2010, 21 per cent in 2011, 18 per cent in 2012 and 14 per cent in 2013, saying the statistics indicates that there has been a steady decline in the level of corruption.

He stressed that the strategies and initiatives should be put in place to continue fighting corruption in his ministry and other ministries as well.

Some of the strategies that the ministry established include the formation of the Anti-Corruption Unity (ACU) to train Corruption Prevention Committees (CPC) countrywide.

He expressed disappointment that it seemed that only 38 per cent of the institutional CPC were effective.

He urged all councils, district commissioners and tribal administrations to double their efforts and urgently resuscitate their CPC because it was through such committees that the ministry planned to fast track sensitisation of staff and the general public on corruption prevention strategies.

Mr Bakae Karata, the project manager for the ministry’s Anti-Corruption Unit, explained that the Anti-Corruption Policy was meant to raise awareness and standardise corruption prevention within the ministry and stakeholders.

The policy focuses on prevention of corruption.

The launching the Ministerial Anti-Corruption Policy was attended by mayors and city and town clerks; council chairpersons and council secretaries; district commissioners; dikgosi; and other senior government officials. Ends