26 Jul 2013

Minister of Health, Dr John Seakgosing says his ministry has made significant strides in its quest to root out corruption by identifying its critical indicators, establishing necessary structures and tools to combat it.

Dr Seakgosing said at the ministry’s launch of Anti-Corruption Policy in Gaborone, Thursday, that to date, staff from 39 facilities had been sensitised about corruption, 29 corruption prevention committees formed and 45 committee members trained. He said through the sensitisation, 182 cases of corruption have been either reported or detected from various health facilities since 2010.

“It is disheartening to hear such big numbers, more so that I am informed the majority is our youths and some are health professionals who have been sworn to uphold good values,” he said. The minister said despite commendable efforts so far in fighting corruption, a lot still lies ahead as corruption was a phenomenon that was not easy to tackle although it cannot be ignored. 

He said it was against this background that the ministry saw it appropriate to commit some of its resources and efforts to the fight against this ill. With regards to the policy that was launched, Dr Seakgosing said the policy was a reminder to all and sundry that there was need to inculcate a culture of responsiveness, ethics and accountability in the ministry and the whole civil service.

“I feel proud to state that in our policy, we seek to foster an organisational culture which does not tolerate fraud or corruption,” he said. He called on ministry employees to take heed of the anti-corruption slogan ‘Stop corruption – report corruption’.

Permanent Secretary in MoH, Dr Kolaatamo Malefho said the policy has good intentions and should not just be left in offices to gather dust. He called for strengthening of supervision, noting that lax in supervision, procedures and processes was room for corrupt practices.

Meanwhile deputy director for Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), Ms Botlhale Makgekgenene said as custodians of anti-corruption war, they have embarked on the facilitation of formation of corruption prevention committees to spearhead anti-corruption efforts to improve governance and enhance internal controls in the work place.

She said the critical aspect of internal controls was supervision and that a lot of problems dealt with were emanating from lack of supervision in institutions.

She expressed confidence that the policy document will be appropriately used to guide the ministry and employees as well as stakeholders on corruption and other untoward behaviour.

She pledged that DCEC will support the ministry’s anti-corruption endeavors. ENDS