04 Dec 2016

The Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Bodies and Public Enterprises committee chairperson Mr Samson Guma has condemned poor governance, corruption and mismanagement in public enterprises.

Speaking during the ongoing committee sitting recently, Mr Guma said there were corrupt practices, abuse of funds that were going to affect institutions and organisations the government has set up to assist Batswana.

The MP for Tati East decried serious poor governance, adding that some government employees steal from the same government that had employed them. He said they should instead invest in government and not ruin the country’s resources.

“Poor governance begets corruption and mismanagement,” said Mr Guma.

He said most enterprises are part of the government and they should be guarding government assets instead of being the ones milking and taking advantage.

“I am not comfortable with a lot of things, most of the internal audits, findings and presentations paint a gloomy picture,” he said adding that very soon there would be no funds to assist Batswana in need of help,” he said.

On HRDC report, Mr Guma said the institution should be selfish in protecting the interest of the government instead of favouring private institutions.

For Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) report Mr Guma encouraged the organisation to do away with the use of credits cards but instead senior officers should take per diem for travelling on official trips outside the country.

Ms Boingotlo Ramotadima who did the internal audit for BITC had informed the committee that the top management misuse credit cards solely meant for official purposes.

Nevertheless, the BITC report was not accepted and they had been requested to go back and do the right things.

Meanwhile, the Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) said Botswana government owes the council P15million.

The BEC executive secretary, Mr Brian Mokopakgosi said government owes P15m for unpaid examinations fees under the Back to School Programme.

Mr Mokopakgosi said they continued to demand the money from the ministry but had been informed that there were no funds.

He nevertheless said they had been told to allow learners to register as the ministry had committed to pay.

Mr Mokopakgosi further stated that the outstanding balance owed by government has serious implications on BEC operations. ENDS