06 Nov 2013

Deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Infrustructure Science and Technology, Dr Seja Maphanyane says her ministry has made strides in the fight against corruption.

Officially launching the ministry’s toll-free number and Anti-Corruption Policy, she said figures of suspected cases seemed to be going down. “I trust that they are going down because the situation is improving and not because there are few reports being made,” she said.

She acknowledged that the ministry had however, in the recent past, been grappling with many allegations and suspicions of corruption against staff members. “We have had to dismiss some, others decided to go on their own when they realised that the curtain was falling on them,” she said.

Dr Maphanyane said MIST was determined to fight corruption as it negatively affected people’s daily lives in many different ways and tended to make poor people even poorer by denying them their rightful share of economic resources. “Corruption puts basic public services beyond the reach of those who cannot afford to pay bribes,” she said. Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) Director General, Ms Rose Seretse, commended MIST for taking DCEC initiatives seriously and implementing them.

Ms Seretse said MIST played a critical role in Botswana’s economic growth. The nature of the services that the ministry offered rendered it prone to corruption.She said MIST was one of the first ministries to launch an Anti-Corruption Policy Statement in March 2010 and that there had been overwhelming requests for benchmarking on the same by other institutions.

The policy spells out the ministry’s position on anti-corruption initiatives, corruption prone areas, mechanisms for combating corruption and roles and expectations of staff and external stakeholders. ENDS