03 Jul 2016

Deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs (MLHA), Mr Montshiwa Montshiwa says they have made tangible progress in ensuring better provision of services to the public in the process aiding the fight against corruption. 

In an interview, Mr Montshiwa said improved delivery aided one of government’s priority areas, fighting corruption in all its manifestations. 

“Corruption happens when systems are weak, and there are delays in the provision of services. We have managed to re-engineer our processes, starting by looking at the potential grey areas within our systems, mapping the processes, and documenting the steps we need to take,” he said. 

Again, he said the ministry had improved issuance of visa, work permits, passports and O Mang national registration cards. 

“We are now able to issue visas within a day and passports can be obtained within just two days. We have worked with other ministries on improving our processes of the issuance of work permits,” Mr Montshiwa said. 

He added that the ministry had specifically recruited a senior officer at deputy permanent secretary level to help facilitate the process of improving their services and fight corruption. 

“We also have corruption prevention teams, with officers trained at district level as well as having a revamped ministerial corruption prevention policy. Also, we have worked on revamping and upgrading our systems, ensuring automated processes able to link any payment made to the government accounting and business system (GAPS), which lessens the chance of corruption,” he said. 

Further, he noted that within a regulatory framework, the ministry had worked on a review of immigration law, citizenship act, labour law and trade disputes act. 

Meanwhile, one of government’s priority areas is to make job creation priority number one.

As a result, Mr Montshiwa said they had been working on assisting private investors to participate in the economy, while protecting workers’ rights. 

“We are trying to make it easier to conduct business in Botswana, introducing immigration consultants and having intensified coordination with stakeholders such as Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC),” he added. 

MLHA principal public relations officer, Ms Tidimalo Palai added that the public should be vigilant and guard against people who claimed to be selling official permits which should only be sourced from offices of the ministrY. ENDS