Africa-Press – Botswana. Hukuntsi District Council chairperson, Mr Moratwa Lekolori, has expressed concern about corruption in the institution, which impact negatively on service delivery.
He said corruption in the newly established council was rampant and the council was losing a lot of revenue through corruption, adding that the funds could be channelled towards developmental projects that would benefit the communities.
“We cannot deny reports of corruption in our council and we know people who are implicated in such practices. We are always at courts of law because of the attitudes of some people who do not want to do the right things,” he said when officiating at the council management retreat held in Maun recently.
Themed: Transformation is key to Productivity, the retreat was aimed at giving the leadership a platform to reflect on their journey and come up with new ways of improving performance as well as to foster strategies for effective operation to the newly established district. Mr Lekolori, who is also councillor for Lehututu/Maake ward, said it was disturbing for some officers to be abusing their powers and extorting bribes in exchange for services, adding that corruption affected service delivery because only a few benefitted especially in the awarding of tenders.
Mr Lekolori said the council was failing the community because of corruption and implored the management to device ways of addressing the problem. As leadership, he said, they must be seen to be working in unison towards eradicating corruption. He highlighted the need to promote accountability and transparency in order to successfully fight corruption.
Mr Lekolori further revealed that as the leadership, they should be driving the Mindset Change agenda in an effort to improve service delivery.
“I am hopeful that this retreat will help us to introspect and strive to give out all we have as far as service delivery is concerned. We are committed and obliged to reset and build our reputation and we can achieve that by living our mandate,” he added. He said the council’s mandate was to improve the quality of life of the local community by efficiently and effectively providing quality social services, economic empowerment programmes, and creating an enabling environment for sustainable development.
The council chairman cautioned officials against corruption, saying they should lead by example in order to gain public confidence. Mr Lekolori also called for prudent management of the limited resources urging them to prioritise projects, which were beneficial to the community.
Earlier on, the acting North West District Council chairperson, Mr Kebonyemodisa Ramolapo urged the council leadership to be exemplary to other councils in striving for excellence in service delivery more so that their institution was newly upgraded.
He urged participants to look for better ways of doing things and above all to revitalise their energy and resources.
He said platforms like retreat would help them to build strong organisational foundation and contribute towards transforming the local economy by developing Reset Agenda action plans and coming up with strategies that best addressed mindset issues in their communities. Outlining the objectives of the retreat, the council secretary, Mr Mosaoka Katorah, said they gathered to evaluate on how they had been doing things noting that they had a number of challenges that affected their delivery of services.
The council serves a total of 14 villages and settlements in the Kgalagadi North constituency with a population of over 23 000. “Our vision is to be a world-class customer-centred social services provider for the local communities and the question is, are we going to achieve our world-class status? In this retreat, we are going to reflect and weigh our previous performance as a council,” he added.
Through the platform, Mr Katorah said they would carry out the environmental scan of their council in order to bring everyone on board to identify opportunities and eliminate areas of concern so that they collectively enhance monitoring and supervision.
For More News And Analysis About Botswana Follow Africa-Press
