27 Feb 2022

Residents and village development committees in Tutume have been implored to help fight corruption rampant in sub-councils within the Central District Council (CDC).

Despite some members of the public and VDC members being aware of illegal dealings, they opted to speak on the side lines instead of reporting to appropriate authorities.

Central District Council chairperson, Mr Ketshwereng Galeragwe said this when addressing a kgotla meeting in Tutume recently.

Mr Galeragwe said while it had come to council leadership’s attention that corruption was extensive within the councils in CDC, people preferred to raise issues of corruption at platforms such as the kgotla meetings and thereafter disappeared without coming forth information, which could be used to catch the culprits.

He added that it was imperative for Batswana to understand that if not dealt with, corruption could destroy the economy and in turn affect livelihoods, hence the need for mutual efforts to combat it.

The chairperson further stated that it was important that corruption be dealt with before it affected lives.

Acts of corruption, he said, were one of the major effects of poor service delivery within government institutions.

He said although government had set service standards and turnaround times, people were not being serviced as per these standards.

Furthermore, Mr Galeragwe stated that government had tasked the councils to implement Local Economic Development policy to ensure that communities were empowered by patronising their dealings.

He said council’s procurement processes would give priority to businesses in their locality before securing goods from outsiders.

“We have been tasked to ensure that procurement of goods and services is done within the communities we are operating in,” he said.

In addition, he pointed out that government was in the process of simplifying citizen economic empowerment laws and the public should expect to see many changes this coming financial year.

He outlined that many of their structures within the council were going to be changed or merged so that it would be easier for the public to do business with councils and get returns likely to change the livelihoods of their communities.

A resident of Magapatona ward, Mr Imi Phili, said people were discouraged to come forth with information on corruption practices because the same authorities that they we expected to report to also thwarted efforts of curbing corruption.

Mr Phili said there had been issues known to council leadership, which involved officers awarding themselves projects yet no action was taken.
He, therefore, called council to put their house in order before seeking help from the public. ENDS