{"id":2217,"date":"2022-02-05T11:43:36","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T11:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ministers-mps-councillors-implicated-in-covid-corruption-probe"},"modified":"2022-02-05T14:18:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T14:18:39","slug":"ministers-mps-councillors-implicated-in-covid-corruption-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ministers-mps-councillors-implicated-in-covid-corruption-probe","title":{"rendered":"Ministers, MPs, Councillors implicated in COVID corruption probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>Several ministers, MPs and councillors have been implicated in ongoing COVID-19 investigations by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crimes (DCEC), The Botswana Gazette has established.<\/p>\n

Sources say DCEC has received over 80 COVID-19 corruption tip-offs and that 22 of them have managed to successfully reach the stage of further analysis and investigation. One case has been forwarded to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) while the rest of the reports have fallen off due to lack evidence.<\/p>\n

A number of prominent politicians across the aisle and ministers (known to this publication) are implicated.<\/p>\n

Most of the reports are linked to awarding of tenders at the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in the course of the first State of Emergency (SoE) that ran from 1st April 2020 to 31st September 2021. \u201cWe are not in a position to reveal names,\u201d the head of DCEC, Tymon Katlholo, said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember that these are only allegations. There is a lot involved in a corruption case. We need to close all possible loopholes before we can hand over these cases to the DPP for consideration of evidence and possible prosecution. It is not a good thing to have such prominent people implicated in corruption allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, as we always say, there is a thin line between a corrupt decision and bad decision by a government official. So we have to be extremely careful when dealing with these matters. You must also understand that these are allegations and you can never stop people from making them but it is our responsibility to follow up on all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in August 2020 The Botswana Gazette reported that President Mokweetsi Masisi had told his ministers and MPs of the Botswana Democratic Party to keep away from COVID-19 tenders. According to some ministers, Masisi warned them that that he would not hesitate to fire anyone caught meddling in COVID-19 tenders.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. Several ministers, MPs and councillors have been implicated in ongoing COVID-19 investigations by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crimes (DCEC), The Botswana Gazette has established. Sources say DCEC has received over 80 COVID-19 corruption tip-offs and that 22 of them have managed to successfully reach the stage of further analysis and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-2217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nMinisters, MPs, Councillors implicated in COVID corruption probe - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Several ministers, MPs and councillors have been implicated in ongoing COVID-19 investigations by the Directorate on Cor ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ministers-mps-councillors-implicated-in-covid-corruption-probe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ministers, MPs, Councillors implicated in COVID corruption probe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Several ministers, MPs and councillors have been implicated in ongoing COVID-19 investigations by the Directorate on Cor ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ministers-mps-councillors-implicated-in-covid-corruption-probe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-05T11:43:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-05T14:18:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/02\/img-61fe872846b2f.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1170\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ministers-mps-councillors-implicated-in-covid-corruption-probe#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ministers-mps-councillors-implicated-in-covid-corruption-probe\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ministers, MPs, Councillors implicated in COVID corruption probe\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-05T11:43:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-05T14:18:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ministers-mps-councillors-implicated-in-covid-corruption-probe\"},\"wordCount\":340,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ministers-mps-councillors-implicated-in-covid-corruption-probe#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/02\/img-61fe872846b2f.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ministers-mps-councillors-implicated-in-covid-corruption-probe#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ministers-mps-councillors-implicated-in-covid-corruption-probe\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ministers-mps-councillors-implicated-in-covid-corruption-probe\",\"name\":\"Ministers, MPs, Councillors implicated in COVID corruption probe - 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