19 Mar 2014

The Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) continues to receive an increasing number of reports of suspected corruption in the North West District, the council chairperson, Mr Lathang Molonda, said recently.

Delivering a speech during a full council meeting, Mr Molonda said between April 2013 and March 10, this year, the DCEC received 49 reports, 13 of them dealing with official corruption such as receiving bribes by public officials; 30 were cases of maladministration and were referred to relevant government agencies; and the remaining six did not fall under the DCEC mandate and complaints were advised accordingly.

Mr Molonda warned corrupt officers that government did not tolerate corruption and that they would be caught, eventually. He added that DCEC, as part of its campaign against corruption, visited eight schools in the district. The campaign was taken to schools so that children could learn at tender age that corruption was a vice.

The DCEC also reviewed systems and procedures of government departments so that they did not encourage corruption. In the North West District Council, efforts had been made to form a corruption preventive committee.

The committee, headed by the deputy council secretary, will education employees against corruption so that all can deal with it. About this this year’s general election, Mr Molonda urged councillors who are candidates to compete in good faith and accept the results.

He said the long-awaited re-development of Mabudutsa has been approved by the Town and Country Board during its February 2014 meeting.This means that realignment of developments to improve the Maun Central Business District can be effected.

It is expected that the development would go a long way in attracting investors to Maun. Regarding Maun Ecotourism Park, he said the study went through the relevant district structure and had been accepted. Ends