05 Aug 2014

Leaders should forge ahead in terms of skills and competencies in order to fight corruption.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Lapologang Lekoa said this at the Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Commonwealth Africa meeting held in Gaborone on August 4.

He said crime perpetrators spent enormous resources and time, working on how to defeat the systems in crime dealings, hence the anti-corruption agencies should be empowered enough to deal with such.

“It is therefore our obligation and duty as leaders to continue to improve on our strategies, and sharpen skills at all levels in our respective organisations to keep up with the challenge,” he said.

Mr Lekoa said corruption could not be tackled by any country in isolation and needed concerted and collaborative effort. In this regard, he said it was imperative for heads of corruption agencies to continue networking and fostering the relations that they have already formed, so that they can assist each other when need arises.

He further said it is for this reason that Commonwealth Africa Anti -Corruption Centre (CAACC) is the one stop shop for anti-corruption agencies with training programmes which cater for officers of anti-corruption agencies in different fields such as investigations, prosecutions, public community education, corruption prevention, leadership and monitoring and evaluation.

He said the centre’s uniqueness and strength lie in its focus on practical skills which are relevant to combating corruption across Commonwealth Africa.

Commonwealth Governance Advisor, Dr Roger Koranteng said the objectives of the CAACC are to improve agency and capability to combat and prevent corruption, strengthen collaboration of regional agencies and to commission research and policy papers.

He further said the centre’s capacity building programmes are based on the professional action learning programme model and this requires participants to demonstrate the application of skills and knowledge acquired in order to progress to the next phase through evidence such as reports and team level outputs.

It is expected that at the end of the four-day training participants will introspect and identify those areas where they can come up with breakthrough initiatives and start applying lessons learnt and cascading them to their management teams. ENDS