23 Nov 2017

Ombudsman, Mr Augustine Makgonatsotlhe has pledged to intensify efforts to enlighten Batswana across the country about their services.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Ghanzi on November 20, Mr Makgonatsotlhe regretted that his organisation, which started its operation in 1997, had not yet sensitised most Batswana about its services.

He viewed that by now, his 20-year-old office should have sensitised most of its potential clients about its services.

Ombudsman Act of 1995, he said, mandated them to investigate maladministration issues in government and parastatal organisations.

He said where maladministration thrived, there would be poor service delivery and the people would end up losing hope on government because of workers not delivering on their mandate.

Thus, he said effectively they existed to enhance quality service delivery in government and parastatal institutions.

To lodge a maladministration complaint with Ombudsman, he said one should have exhausted internal channels of raising a complaint.

He said his organisation could not investigate cases before courts of law, but could only investigate their delay.

Mr Makgonatsotlhe said after completing investigations, they made recommendations to respective departments.

However, if the departments ignored the recommendations, they could make and submit a report to Parliament.

He was happy that in most instances departments were cooperating.

In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Botshelo Lekgothu of Ghanzi expressed displeasure about the prevailing tendency of Ghanzi community of snubbing kgotla meetings. ENDS