P60 million forensic audit starts

President Advocate Duma Boko said government is making progress in conducting the government finances audit that will determine the level of mismanaged public funds due to corruption during the previous Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) regime, with P60 million budgeted for comprehensive audit. Boko made the audit pronouncement on Wednesday while responding to the budget speech in Parliament, sparking mixed reactions from public and the political divide. 

Botswana Congress Party (BCP) Publicity Secretary, Dr Mpho Pheko said the price tag is a concern given the state of the budget. She said the biggest should be procurement process, adding that it begs more questions than answers. 

“Why is the President engaged in a procurement process? That is wholly inappropriate. How did he identify this particular foreign company, secure its quote and decide on it without Terms of Reference? How does this square up with the country’s procurement legislation? Why is the procurement process shrouded in secrecy,” she asked rhetorically. 

She said Botswana is a republic and not a monarchy buttressing that Batswana did not give the president their trust implicitly. According to Dr Pheko, the President cannot commit public resources at his discretion, and in violation of the procurement legislation. 

“What he is doing negates everything the Vice President and Minister of Finance said about integrity and fighting corruption. We want an open, fair, transparent and competitive process of identifying a forensic auditor. Above all the process must comply with the law,” she said. Dr Pheko added: “We need good reasons why domestic firms are put out of consideration. So far, we see no basis for excluding them and the condescension they are being subjected to.” 

DCEC 

Political science lecturer at University of Botswana (UB) Dr Adam Mfundisi said the commencement of the envisaged Forensic Audit is commendable but long overdue taking into consideration the plight of the people, adding that Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) documentation of corruptive practices should be the basis for the forensic audit of government business. 

Dr Mfundisi said how the audit will impact on the audit will impact on the overall governance of the country is a big question. 

“Will it unearth grand corruption and maladministration in previous regimes? What period will the audit cover matters? What impact will it have when some of the potential culprits within the bureaucratic structures are on post? Will they interfere in the process?” he said. 

He also said South Africa’s Commission of Inquiry on State Capture has not met value for money, noting that no one as of today has been successfully investigated, prosecuted and convicted. 

“I hope ours were bear fruit otherwise it would be a waste of scarce resources. The audit should be comprehensive and focused on key levers of the economy, society and polity,” said UB politics don. 

Boko 

Boko said the audit will be comprehensive and will cover all the 30 State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and government ministries and departments respectively. Boko said the vice president and Minister of Finance Ndaba Gaolathe, informed him that initially a P250 million targeted audit was to be conducted therefore it was not valuable to spend a lot in such small but costly audit. He said government is committed to ensure that all the public money that had be stolen would be recovered from the audit process, adding that the audit will not be politically motivated but will be on merit. 

According to Boko, the decision to engage international professional audit experts emanates from Botswana’s small size where deep affiliations among citizens might raise concerns about impartiality and allegations of political witch-hunts.