02 Mar 2022

Recruitment of suitably qualified officers for the Ethics and Integrity Directorate is ongoing and capacity building continues in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.  

Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Dumezweni Mthimkhulu said this in response to a question in Parliament on Tuesday.

Mr Mthimkhulu said the Ethics and Integrity Directorate commenced operations on January 6, 2020 with an establishment of only two posts.

He added the Directorate received the first declaration form on February 3, 2020 and it had, to date, received 2 889 declaration forms, 1 099 of which had been issued with acknowledgement slips, as having met the requirements of the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Act.  

Also, he said 1 146 forms had been returned to the various declarants for correction and/or full completion, while 644 awaited processing. 

The assistant minister also told Parliament that the estimated number of persons who ought to declare was 4 000, based on the lists of names received by the Directorate from ministries, departments and agencies. 

More lists, he said continued to arrive as the ministries better understood the categories of persons who ought to declare. 

“To date, 1 099 declarants have been issued with acknowledgement slips as proof that they have declared. 

Out of these, 1 091 are Batswana,” he said.

He also said in an effort to increase declarants’ level of compliance with the requirements of the Act, the Directorate continued to engage them and other stakeholders such as government departments, councils and parastatal organisations through written correspondences as well as  physical and virtual meetings. 

“The number of such meetings is expected to increase since December 31, 2022 is the deadline for submitting second declarations, for most declarants,” he added. 

Mr Mthimkhulu further indicated that the obligation to make a declaration did not apply to private citizens who did not work for government even when their assets and liabilities were comparable with those of  government officials and officers who declared theirs. 

However, he said section 7 required a declarant to declare, among other things, the interests, income, assets and liabilities of any company or business undertaking in which the declarant or the declarant’s spouse, son, daughter, sibling or parent was a beneficial owner. 

“By so doing, the declarant declares the interests, income, assets and liabilities of the declarant’s immediate family members and business partners who may be private citizens, as distinguished from the public officials and officers listed in sections 3 and 6 of the Act,” he said.  

Gaborone North MP, Mr Mpho Balopi, had asked the minister to brief Parliament on the performance of the Ethics and Integrity Directorate and to update on the declarations of assets and liabilities made to date.

Mr Balopi also asked the minister to state the number of Batswana estimated to be within the bracket of those who ought to declare their assets and liabilities and the number of those who have declared.

The MP also wanted to know if declarations applied to government officials and officers only and not to private citizens who were not necessarily working for government, but whose assets and liabilities were comparable to those of government officials and officers who declared theirs. ends