01 Aug 2019

The proposed Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Bill, 2019 has been described as an important component in the running of a democracy.

Debating the proposed bill, Gaborone-Bonnington South MP Mr Ndaba Gaolathe said although the bill was inadequate in attaining the intended objectives, it laid the foundation in fighting corruption.

He noted that there were different models aimed at combating corruption in terms of legislation framework that dealt with assets declaration and liabilities. Such models, he said served to monitor the progression of wealth of those in power, something he said showed that transparency was critical.

He said a transparent governance, where the public had an insight into the activities of those in power and making decisions was adequate to manage corruption.

He also said inculcating a culture of ethics and good conduct was also seen as one model of combating corruption.

In addition, Mr Gaolathe said the model of ominous was another way of containing corruption, where a strong sanction against the fraudulent and those that were corrupt was applied.

He said the bill should be in-depth and focus on other models of monitoring wealth, transparency, inculcating a culture of ethics and those ‘who are strong on sanctions.’

Further, Mr Gaolathe said fighting corruption required committed leadership adding that ‘no nation can progress if there is corruption and where we have leaders without integrity.’

He said there was need to have robust institutions with strong processes of checks and balances.

Mr Gaolathe said Botswana had not reached such  a point where there were strong institutions with strong checks and balances.

He said as long as the executive continued to have excessive powers relative to other branches of government then it would be difficult to contain corruption.

Also, he said as long as oversight institutions such as Auditor General, DCEC and other institutions were not independent then it would be hard to fight corruption.

In this regard, Mr Gaolathe said he believed the proposed bill emanated from a school of thought of monitoring wealth which is registering assets of those that are in power and monitoring such wealth over time.

He therefore noted that this was inadequate and challenged the minister to consider the model of ethics which he indicated had the definition of conflict of interest.

Mr Gaolathe said as a country Botswana should reach a point where it is able to define what constitutes to conflict of interest for the different role players in the different arms of government.

Mr Gaolathe said once what constituted conflict of interest had been established, then there could be some commissioner of ethics on that basis, who would advise those concerned on where they are in terms of those conflicts of interest.

The Gaborone - Bonnington South Legislator said there was no need to have a law that was silent or dormant, only monitoring wealth and only active once there was suspicion that a crime had been committed. Ends