09 Dec 2020

North West District Council (NWDC) chairperson, Mr Kebareeditse Ntsogotlho has called upon institutions to form Corruption Prevention Committees (CPCs) which will implement and support preventative mechanism towards the fight against corruption.

Delivering a speech during a full council meeting, he revealed that the fight against corruption was a national calling which required organisations to mainstream anti-corruption efforts in their daily operational activities.

Through the concept of CPCs, he said, organisations would be afforded an opportunity to achieve the objective of operating in a corruption-free environment.

In addition, he said, it was from the CPCs where officers learned how to conduct corruption risk assessments which assisted in systematically identifying and mitigating corruption related risks.

Mr Ntsogotlho stated that it was evident that organisations whose CPCs were active and receiving the necessary support had a visible success trail as they implemented all their scheduled activities as well as implemented recommendations that might had emanated from assessments and audits.

On the contrary inactive CPCs, he said, were characterised by non-implementation of agreed recommendations, silent death of the committees which might escalate allegations of corruption.

“It is on this premise that I would like to call upon you for collaborative effort to develop and implement comprehensive Corruption Prevention Plans (CPPs) in support of preventative mechanisms towards the fight against corruption,” he added.  

The council chairperson also appreciated that Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) envisaged a corruption free society hence the institution had deployed its officers to tirelessly work on implementing the anti-corruption initiatives; despite facing challenges brought forth by perpetrators who equally invest immeasurable amounts of time on planning how to advance their mechanisms of defrauding the public.   

In order to avoid the risk of fueling corruption during the COVID-19 crisis, Mr Ntsogotlho said institutions should be encouraged to support efforts such as monitoring public service delivery in the public sector, ensuring transparent procurement processes and management of public funds, as well as undertaking other targeted integrity measures.  

Corruption challenges, he said, called for a sincere leadership role in the fight against corruption practices, adding that “we need leadership that shun+ corruption and immorality to be able to inspire our followers to develop and implement strategies that include corruption diagnostic and remedial measures.”

On other issues, Mr Ntsogotlho decried illegal abstraction of river water in the district. The Department of Water and Sanitation, he said had noticed that there was illegal abstraction of river water due to lack of knowledge by the public on issues regarding water rights.

He explained that the water right was granted ‘only to the applicants who have the land right certificate.’ To mitigate the situation, the department, he said conducted some audits/ and spot checks on compliance to water right issued, targeting all public accessible points. Councillors learnt that when a person was found abstracting without water right certificate, he/she was advised to normalise the situation as some did not know anything about water rights.

They were also informed that the water right was not issued to truck owners, but to the end user being the public who would in turn engage truck owners to fetch water on their behalf.

Mr Ntsogotlho informed the house that water levels and flows of the lower Okavango Delta system had been declining since July 2020. The decrease in water levels and flows was reported to be caused by high rate of evaporation, infiltration and high rate of water abstraction for commercial and individual use amongst others.

He also highlighted that the little water that was accumulated in Lake Ngami during 2019/20 hydrological year inflows was now drying up . The lake, he said was now standing at 14 per cent in terms of area covered by water. Ends