30 Jul 2019

Corruption has been described as a curse with many evils.

Deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Dr Themba Mmusi said lack of quality service and proper justice, accidents, faked research and employment of incompetent staff were among the evils of the evils of corruption.

He was officially opening the ministry and its parastatals’ anti-corruption prevention committee training in Otse on July 29.

Dr Mmusi said government had therefore gone out in full force to fight corruption.

Corruption, he said, had forced government to come up with functional institutions such as the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC). 

“Let me indicate that we should, as a country, continuously transform DCEC so that it becomes an effective war machine against corruption in all its forms,” he said. 

Dr Mmusi said there were many ways to avert corruption saying there should be a culture of correct and ethical record keeping which was fully adhered to in offices. 

 He further advised the ministry parastatals that correct record keeping must be supplemented with effective administration of records entailing continuous documentation of information.

 A Botswana National Archives and Records Services official, Ms Kabelo Gabalebale said record keeping played a major role in the fight against corruption. 

 Ms Gabalebale said all records must tell a complete story of what transpired adding that it provided verifiable evidence to fraud and could lead to the root of corruption and restoration of the rule of law. 

“Their availability plays a vital role in the avoidance or propagation of corruption,” she stated. 

 She warned that poor records management, which was prevalent in some government departments, opened the door to corruption and fraud. 

In the absence of records, there would be almost impossible to prove fraud as meaningful audits could not be conducted.

 She therefore called on managers to have ownership of the records management agenda in the quest to fight corruption. 

Ms Gabalebale warned that information leakage constituted corruption as it provided unfair advantage to its recipients, especially in tendering and other competitive processes. 

Meanwhile DCEC’s Ms Kutlwano Chadube said corruption impacted on everyone as it effects would be felt by even those who had not taken part. 

She said DCEC continued to investigate cases of corruption and refer them to prosecution bodies. Ends