Public funds thrown down the abyss

Mmegi Editor | Thursday August 29, 2024 13:19

Dibete and villages in its environs are a crime hotspot with escalating cases of rape, defilement, murder, stock theft and other serious crimes. Dibete cordon fence, where the police station is located, has seen the police making many successes in intercepting stolen goods such as bags of marijuana, suspected stolen motor vehicles and an assortment of other goods. It is therefore, disheartening that the government has decided to close the police station for good only after a decade (2008 to 2018) of the station’s continuous operation in its recent status.

When recently briefing Parliament, Defence and Security Minister, Kagiso Mmusi, acknowledged that the government has made a decision to close the station due to severe dilapidation with cracked walls and floors. The description of the status of the police station upon its closure point to just one thing; that the government engineers possibly slept on their job by condoning poor workmanship, which could not stand the test of time.

The descriptions such as: “The structure’s dangerous condition became evident when suspects were allegedly trapped in holding cells, as the doors failed to open, caused by earthquake-like defects in the building.” This was said by the minister when briefing the National Assembly recently.

It beats logic how the whole government system could be duped and pass a below par multi-million facility, which is now disrupting the crucial services of fighting crime. From outside, the ‘state-of the-art’ police station seemed like it was going to go a long way into servicing where the Southern part of the country and the northern part meet, alas things have fallen apart. Although we are not explicitly told about the source of the problem, we encourage the powers that be to go back to the drawing board and demand for the results of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) at the time of construction and take it from there. To ensure that public funds are not further thrown into a deep abyss, public officers have to be alert and do the jobs they are paid for diligently. If a thorough scrutiny and proper foundation was laid, there was no way the ‘earthquake-like’ cracks noted on the floors and walls of the closed building could have developed.

It’s not enough for the minister to simply tell Parliament, “Unfortunately, poor construction methods adopted have led to the current state of the building.” It’s our considered view that since the government is aware of the source of the problem, it will be ideal that heads must roll within the government to find out why such a building was allowed to pass when it had all the noted challenges. We all agree that the Botswana Police Service (BPS) as an institution is so crucial that we cannot imagine a day without the police.

‘Prudence is the footprint of wisdom’

– Amos Bronson Alcott