12 Mar 2019

Member of Parliament for Gaborone Bonnington North, Advocate Duma Boko has rallied government to consider adequately resourcing the Attorney General’s Chambers so as to empower the office and enable it to effectively deliver on its mandate.

Debating the AG’s budget proposals for the next financial year on March 11, Advocate Boko cited the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) as a division of the entity that was presently under-resourced.

He said denying the DPP resources rendered it ineffective and incompetent in its efforts to carry out its functions.

He observed that while the police and the DCEC were doing relatively well in crime detection and investigating, their efforts were also curtailed by inadequate resourcing.

He said when rendered incapable by resource constraints, the DPP would as a consequence be negatively affected through having inadequately investigated cases forwarded to it.

The lawmaker also dismissed the Attorney General for not being the lead counsel for government in major cases.

He said it was disappointing that the AG instead often sourced the services of advocates from South Africa to lead the DPP attorneys in major cases in which government was a party.

Making his contribution, MP for Selibe Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse described as an anomaly, the fact that the AG sat in all three arms of government.

The Selebi Phikwe West legislator further observed that the office had been inconsistent in advising Parliament, saying recently the AG’s had advised the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to halt investigations into the NPF matter on the grounds that the issue was before the courts.

He said such advice lacked merit as parallel investigations had been and were continuing to be carried out the world over.

Mr Keorapetse also suggested that the office should employ more prosecutors and pay them well to help address the issue of case backlog. 

In addition, he said the DCEC needed to be given prosecutorial powers while the police needed to be removed from prosecuting so that they could focus on their core business which included investigation and dealing with crime.

Maun West lawmaker, Mr Tawana Moremi implored government to take the issue of conflict resolution seriously, arguing that it was one of the issues that potential investors looked at when considering whether or not to invest in a country. ENDS