28 Mar 2019

In line with giving the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services a face lift and bringing Batswana closer to the critical security organ, Director of DISS  Brigadier Peter Magosi says the organisation’s Act would undergo review to root out any elements that may have impeded it from fully delivering on its mandate.  

To iron out perceptions of misappropriation of funds by the organisation, which by nature is highly secretive, Director Magosi said he had requested for the services of Auditor General to audit the DISS, which has never been audited since its inception, to ensure effective service delivery.

He said his intention as the new leader was to have an oversight committee, elected by Parliament, established.
He said the security agency had bench marked internationally and shall institute best practices to ensure that there was accountability within the DISS without compromising its operations as currently there was no legal instrument in Botswana to enable undertaking of a specialised financial audit.

Brigadier Magosi was addressing Kgalagadi District full council meeting on March 27.

He called on councillors to mobilise their communities and create cordial working relations between the security agency and the people as it was there to serve them and get rid of organised crimes, cyber-crime, espionage economic crime, corruption, illicit drugs, and terrorism, which was a threat to world peace.

He said he was rebuilding an organisation that he wanted to seamlessly connect with all security organs such as Botswana Defense Force, Botswana Police Service, Prisons Services, Botswana Unified Revenue Services, and other government departments.

“I want to break the silos, I want all of us to connect, the right hand should know what the left hand is doing, that is inter agency cooperation,” he said.

He added that the inter-connectivity would greatly assist in curbing deeply rooted corruption caused by criminal syndicates as has been the case with operation KgomoKhumo,  in which they worked together with the Botswana Police Service and executed it successfully.

He said that organised corruption continued to bleed government coffers.

“This country has lost so much and I am going to do my best to bring the culprits to book.

If you have not been doing things right, I can assure that we are coming for you,” he said.

Further, Director Magosi said they had noted cases of organised crime in the SADC region, where illicit drugs were trafficked from country to country, which he said called for collective efforts of the DISS and the community.  
He advised enterprising citizens to dissect and examine their partnerships with some foreign nationals who use their business partnerships to ‘clean money used to sponsor terrorism’.
In the Kgalagadi District, he said, the DISS had noted that the country was losing its wildlife as criminals killed wild cats such as lions and leopards, stole their curbs and sold them outside the country, ‘but rest assured, we are coming for you.
The time will come when you will see criminals prosecuted in courts.

We are still building our cases. The time will come,” he warned.

He said a DISS office would  soon be opened in Tsabong to address organised crimes in the district.

Meanwhile, he said the people could blow the whistle on the DISS Toll Free number: 08100600761, which was available free on mobile networks.

In his response to the director, Vaalhoek/Rappelspan councillor Phillipus Morerwa appreciated the organisation for bringing services to Tsabong, which he said was long overdue.
He said the office should give the whistle blowers confidentiality and grant them the security they deserve.

He also called on the DISS to hasten to bring to book pseudo social network accounts that people used to push non-nation building agendas and defamed other people.
Bogogobo/Kolonkwaneng councillor John Lentshikang called for the corrupt criminals to be brought to book and the DISS to effectively discharge its mandate going forward and not become a rogue organisation as has been perceived in the past.
“Newspapers are awash with high level corruption stories,  but we never see them being prosecuted, why?” he questioned rhetorically. ends