01 Aug 2019

The leader of Umbrella for Democratic Change who is also leader of opposition in Parliament Advocate Duma Boko says the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Bill 2019 though good in principle, is inadequate in its approach.

In his debate of the bill, Advocate Boko said until institutions such as the DCEC and Ombudsman were independent, fighting corruption remained a mirage.

He therefore dismissed the proposed bill saying corruption in  Botswana was  institutionalised and legalised by the corrupt ruling elites, with no checks and balances.

Advocate Boko said the ruling party was corrupt, adding that it had access to government resources and used them with impunity for personal gains.

He said there was no transparency as there was constant abuse of entrusted power over personal gain. He said government resources like car fleet, aircrafts and human resource were used with impunity in political campaigns.

Also debating the Bill MP for Selibe Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse shared same sentiments with Advocate Boko

Mr Keorapetse  who is also the UDC Chief Whip described the bill as ‘pathetic as it was centered around the self-accolades of the seating Head of State to self-credit himself for fighting corruption’.

Mr Keorapetse said even though the UDC was in full support of the ‘principle of the Declaration of Assets, Business Interests and Liabilities, the content of the bill in question could not achieve the intended objective for as so-long-as the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) was identified as the custodian of the declarations.

Mr Keorapetse stated that the proposed legislation would not serve its intended purpose if the DCEC as an oversight institution was not independent with its own budgetary requirements and adequate resources.

He therefore pleaded with government to sanction the DCEC to be an independent body and be detached from the Office of the President and free from the claws of the executive.

Mr Keorapetse said the DCEC officials should be well-capacitated to carry out investigations on government elites and those who are aligned with the ruling party without fear of victimisation.

He said it was important to have more independent oversight institutions that wuld execute their duties without restriction from the Office of the President.

The DCEC, he said should be directly accountable to Parliament and with Parliament Public Accounts Committee been the main advisory during its investigations.

“The UDC is of the view that Section 15 (2) of the DCEC Act should be eliminated as it gives the President powers to restrict access anyway on account of national security hence it is open to abuse of power and interfere with DCEC investigation pursuant to Section 15(2) of the DCEC,” he said.

Ghanzi North legislator, Mr Noah Salakae also dismissed the bill saying it needed to be rephrased and amended to enable it to serve its intended purpose.

Mr Salakae also decried of the lack of independence of the DCEC stating that the enrolment of the DCEC under Parliament will strengthen its independence as it would be reporting directly to Parliament and ensure its independence from the Executive.

To make the desired impact, be relevant and effective at all levels of governance, Mr Salakae argued that the DCEC must be independent so that it is well capacitated to carry out independent investigation and provide oversights of the Executive.

In his view, this would not only guarantee the independence of the DCEC but would give  it confidence and hence enhance job performance at the critical level of investigation , for public accountability.

He expressed confidence that autonomy of the DCEC would promote transparency, accountability and integrity in fighting corruption.

Mr Salakae noted that the UDC therefore found it difficult to adopt a bill that was poorly crafted to serve personal interests and called for the bill to be withdrawn in order to be restructured with necessary amendments. Ends