19 Mar 2018

Parliamentarians have expressed differing views towards the motion that requested President to appoint a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the alleged abuses at the National Petroleum Fund (NPF) as a matter of urgency.

The motion was presented by Bonnington South MP, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe.

Specially Elected MP and Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Eric Molale argued that ordinarily no one was against the substance held by the mover of the motion, but noted that the mover brought it before the house for purposes of political grand standing to gain popularity campaign.

“Law of this republic is crystal clear that nobody is above the law,” he said.

He said Parliament had appointed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that examines accounts of government and acts as public spending watchdog, which he said shouldered the responsibility to find out what happened at the NPF.

He further said it was common knowledge that custodians of public funds should be held accountable.

“In the final analysis, it is in this house where such accountability is made. Therefore, this on its own shows that we are in a democratic system and we abide by the Constitution that speaks of separation of powers. There are custodians of funds, those who allocate and those who use and account for funds, and that in the event there is any truancy within separation of powers, there is the judiciary that should adjudicate as to who has done wrong,” he said.

Mr Molale further said PAC should be given a chance to do its work.

The PAC member and MP for Tati East, Mr Samson Guma said PAC was currently doing its work and that it might agree that the ideas that Mr Gaolathe brought forward be used to assist the committee.

He said should Parliament agree with the motion, it would be an indication that they were abdicating their responsibilities.

Mr Moyo further argued that PAC might go a step ahead and recommend a forensic audit, which he said was a much better alternative as it was much deeper with investigations.

“My biggest problem is that we have appointed a committee to do its work, hence if we feel we are limited in one way, we have the powers as a committee to ask the Auditor General to go deeper. The depth of it may entail a forensic audit whose findings are closer to a charge sheet,” he said.

MP for Serowe South, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi questioned if legislators were ignorant of the law, or have discarded the committees set up in Parliament and resolutions and motions that were passed before.

She concurred with Mr Molale that the motion sought weaknesses that could be exploited for political public consumption to gain political mileage and popularity.

Dr Venson-Moitoi said it would not make sense for the executive to examine itself, which she said was the reason why they would hope that a PAC would do the best.

She further said since Mr Gaolathe had identified the shortfalls, he as a member of the PAC should be in a position to guide the committee with regards to terms of reference to cover.

For his part, MP for Bonnington North and Leader of Opposition (LOO), Mr Duma Boko said he had a problem with requesting President to appoint a commission of enquiry.

Mr Boko further said should the President accede to the request, he would be entitled to decide who members of the commission are. In this regard, Mr Boko suggested that instead, Parliament should find a better approach to give outcomes that were potent and credible such as a process to empower PAC to incorporate the scope of what Parliament wanted to achieve.

“We may also take a route to select a committee of Parliament that would be given a mandate to deal with the matter,” he said.
MP for Gaborone Central, Dr Phenyo Butale said he was disappointed that MPs were against the matter that was of utmost public importance. He said the motion sought to do a process that would establish what happened.

He argued that the commission of inquiry was in the interest of transparency, saying that the President might appoint the judiciary to appoint the commissioners so that he may earn the trust of Batswana.

Dr Butale further expressed disappointment that PAC had on numerous occasions failed the public.

He said the stance that LOO took had denied Batswana of the most transparent process that would have established what happened at the Petroleum Fund.

The motion failed to go through as 37 MPs voted against it, while 14 voted for it and one MP abstained from voting. Ends