Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana’s land boards are grappling with numerous corruption-related issues such as double allocation of plots, bribery to jump the queue as well as illicit allocations.
This was disclosed by a Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) official Mr Mlayizi Gwambule during Anti-Corruption Day in Makaleng recently.
He said corruption was also rearing its ugly head in the transport sector where many youths ‘bought driving tests’ instead of following the formal way of training.
The result was road accidents which claimed many lives, he said.
Mr Gwambule blamed rampant corruption on the failure of DCEC anti-corruption programmes.
He said through its preventative strategy, the organisation had designed various anti-corruption programmes to be implemented by an array of stakeholders.
The programmes, he said, had not yielded the desired results as stakeholders in the fight against corruption considered it secondary to their core mandate citing Corruption Prevention Committees (CPC).
“This impacted negatively on the success of anti-corruption efforts by DCEC as evidenced by the continued occurrence of corruption in institutions at which the interventions were implemented,” he said.
Mr Gwambule said the fight against corruption within land boards should not be left solely to crime-busting organisations such as the DCEC.
“Corruption is a national concern that requires a concerted effort by all players concerned,” said.
He stressed that corruption could only be fought and won through different strategies that involved all stakeholders.
Tati Land Board and CPC member, Mr Melton Monyamane said the objective of the day was to educate and sensitise the community on the ramifications of corruption.
It was also aimed at conveying ethical and anti-corruption messages that would help eradicate corruption from society and the workplace, he said.
Mr Monyamane said its other objective was to define the role of land boards and communities in corruption prevention and devise strategies to fight it.
In his welcome remarks, Makaleng’s Kgosi Thuso Ramokate said corruption was a serious concern particularly now that some Batswana colluded with foreign criminal syndicates to engage in fraudulent practices.
“Money used to fight corruption in the country could be used for developmental purposes,” he said.
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