DCEC to stake-out corrupt government officials

ONALENNA MODIKWA
Staff Writer | Thursday June 7, 2012 00:00

The hands-on officers are said to have already developed suspicions where they are stationed to interrogate all transactions of procurement, an Anti-Corruption Officer at DCEC, Maureen Bome revealed at a private sector workshop on Tuesday.She expressed hope that it will be a deterrent to potential corrupt practices in the ministries.According to Bome the Gaborone City Council (GCC) has also fallen under the radar of the DCEC as they have dispatched an officer to be stationed there on a permanent basis.

The ministries, local government, finance and development planning, infrastructure, science and technology, lands and housing and health are said to have recorded high incidents of corruption.She added that they also carry out corruption conduct audits where they identify a government department to investigate and they recently did the same with the Mogoditshane Sub-Land Board. However, Bome said they are yet to conduct a survey to assert the impact that the strategy has had in rooting out corruption in the said ministries.

'We have seen permanent secretaries taking serious action where corruption was reported and we believe this is going to be a big deterrent of corruption,' she said. She disclosed that they used statistics to identify the five ministries and the GCC as the most corrupt, adding that they will soon roll out the strategy to other ministries.The Anti Corruption Officer also said they can attach their officers to private companies and public bodies upon request.She further added that corruption is rife in government departments because of bureaucracy and lack of internal controls.According to her, government workers have a tendency of abusing their discretionary powers, warning them to always account when using them (discretionary powers). She explained that outdated policies that do not appeal to modern times are also cause for concern and cited that some 1966 policies are still in practice to date.She also added that there was a need to form the DCEC because government was overwhelmed with white collar crime and there is therefore a need to update some laws that they view as opening room for corruption and also to interrogate all government systems.

'We examine the practice and procedures of public bodies to facilitate discovery of corrupt practices,' she added.Bome appealed to the business community and the general public to be morally inclined to uproot corruption and also warned that public officers are not allowed to assist tender applicants with their bid, emphasising that some companies make budget for bribery especially during tender awards.She examplified that some costs of corruption to government include the P21 million Daisy Loo case, P1 million GCC land case, P21 million Central Medical Stores case and P270 million former Debswana employees payment, among others. She regretted that there are no assets forfeiture laws that could be used for cost recovery and said they only rely on proceeds of serious crimes like in cases of money laundering.

Participants were pleased with the new DCEC approach to root out corruption and requested that the DCEC investigates independently without acting on reports it receives and cited the Selebi-Phikwe-Sefhophe Road, which has been under construction for many years now, demanding to know when the project will be investigated. 'We are taking care of that through the officers we attached to the respective ministries,' Bome responded.