01 Mar 2023

Member of Parliament for Selebi Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse has called for decentralisation and rationalisation of the Ministry for State President.

Mr Keorapetse made the call in his comments on the ministry’s 2023/2024 financial year presented by Minister for State President, Mr Kabo Morwaeng in Parliament on Tuesday.

He said the presidency needed to be de consecrated through the transfer of certain departments to the relevant ministerial portfolios.

“There is need for certain departments to be detached from the presidency to the relevant ministries.

For instance the Directorate on Intelligence and Security needs to be transferred to the Ministry of Defense and Security,” he said.

Again, he was of the view that the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency also needed to be transferred to the Ministry of Health while both the Information and Broadcasting services departments should be under the relevant ministry.

He argued for the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) should be independent and be made an oversight institution that would have its own budgetary requirements and be adequately resourced in order to achieve its mandate.

“Government needs to sanction the DCEC to be an independent body and be detached from the Office of the President and free it from the claws of the executive,” he said.

Also, Mr Keorapetse rooted for capacitation of the DCEC employees so that they would be able to carry out investigations on government elites and those aligned with the ruling party without fear of victimisation.

“It is important to have more independent oversight institutions that will execute their duties delicately without restriction from the Office of the President,” he added.

He was also of the view that the DCEC should directly account to the National Assembly with the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee being the main advisory body during its investigations.

“The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) is thus of the view that certain sections of the DCEC Act should be eliminated as they gives the President powers to restrict access on account of national security,” he said.

Maun East MP, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile was also for the liberated DCEC, arguing that being under Parliament would strengthen its impartiality as it would be reporting directly to the National Assembly and be independent of the executive.

“To make the desired impact and be relevant and effective at all levels of governance, the DCEC must be independent so that it could be capacitated to carry out independent investigation and provide oversights of the executive,” he said.

That, he said, would not only guarantee the organisation’s independence, but would give it confidence and in turn enhance job performance at the critical level of investigation for public accountability.

He was confident that as an independent entity, the DCEC would promote transparency, accountability and integrity on fighting corruption.

Mr Kekgonegile further implored government to allocate more funds on disaster management projects, particularly that his constituency was prone to floods due to its proximity to the country’s major rivers.

For her part, Specially Elected MP, Ms Philda Kereng applauded the institutionalisation of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, which continued to be guided by the National Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Policy.

Ms Kereng said it was important to strength government’s monitory and evaluation tools through introduction of data management guidelines with the aim to address rampant data challenges.

The guidelines, she said, would ensure collection of appropriate data to meet requirements for performance reporting.

She also applauded the Department of Broadcasting Service for introducing new channels, which she said gave the executive and policy implementers a platform to further promote government policies to improve livelihoods of citizens. ENDS