Africa-Press – Botswana. North West District Council (NWDC) leadership has vowed to intensify efforts to fight corruption.
Addressing a kgotla meeting in Maun on Monday, the council chairperson, Mr Kebareeditse Ntsogotlho, said they received corruption allegations levelled against some officers.
He said the council was closer to the people, therefore it was disturbing for some officers to be abusing their powers and extorting bribes in exchange for services.
Corruption, he said, affected service delivery and only a few benefited, especially in awarding of tenders.
Mr Ntsogotlho also stated that they had managed to act where necessary, revealing that some officers had been dismissed from work while others were awaiting disciplinary hearing.
He pleaded with the community to join forces with the council to root out corruption and unethical conduct in the public service.
“We, therefore, encourage you to speak out and report any wrongdoing,” he added.
He said the council leadership was committed to uprooting corruption by strengthening oversight of ethics, integrity and discipline as they continued to implement the decentralisation policy. The council chairperson said they had also engaged its staff to drill them on corruption and related issues.
Mr Ntsogotlho explained that the decentralisation policy and the merging of Maun Administrative Authority (MAA) with North West District Council, were meant to bring services closer to the people and expedite service delivery.
He said the merging of the two institutions would not affect service provision as the public would continue accessing services from MAA.
The NWDC secretary, Mr Motlogelwa Thuso, also expressed concern about incidents of corruption in the council, saying it was unfortunate as at times they failed to act accordingly due to lack of evidence.
He cautioned officials against falling into corruption, adding that they were the first line of defence against it, hence they should lead by example in order to gain public confidence.
Mr Thuso also appealed to members of the community to use existing mechanisms to expose corruption.
He also appreciated the decentralisation policy, noting that some services such as planning permission, commercial and trade licences, bye-law and waste collection, among others, would be provided at MAA offices to avoid the public having to travel long distances.
Some residents revealed that they were equally concerned about corruption and poor service delivery within the council.
One of the residents, Mr Tshematshe Monwela said corruption and maladministration remained a major cause for concern and that something needed to be done to the stop the rot.
He accused the council leadership of exacerbating corruption by side-lining other key village structures such as village development committees, especially in project implementation.
Mr Monwela said tenders were also awarded to the same companies, which were not even from the district.
Mr Seoka Kenosi concurred, noting that officials were entrusted with managing public resources for the public benefit but ‘we are disappointed to see some misusing their powers to benefit a few’.
He urged council leadership to work closely with other government agencies such as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Botswana Police Service to fight fraud in the workplace.
For More News And Analysis About Botswana Follow Africa-Press
