DCEC goes hard on DIS
DCEC bars DIS from accessing investigation files DCEC preliminary investigations expose DIS and some of its officers DIS investigated for interference in five national projects DIS in gross abuse of power in Butterfly case investigation
The decision by the Directorate of Intelligence and Security to pounce on their colleagues in the law enforcement sphere, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime has come back to haunt the spy agency.
This is after DCEC Director General Tymon Katholo made damning revelations about investigations his organisation is currently carrying against the DIS. Last week the DIS sealed off the offices of the DCEC boss and that of the Staff Officer at the time when they were outside the country on official duty. The DIS has sealed the offices as part of its operational investigation at the corruption busting agency and wanted to access some files for their investigations. Katholo has revealed in his founding affidavit that some officers at the DIS and those in top positions are being investigated for alleged corruption and they are alive to such investigation by the DCEC. Katholo approached the Lobatse High Court to stop the DIS from accessing the files and demanded that such files should be held in the custody of the Registrar and Master of the High Court and be placed in a vault. High Court Judge Reuben Lekorwe granted Katholo the interim order to bar DIS or any of its officers and or Agents or any party claiming through it from accessing the files and or records save as may be authorised by the court pending the determination of another claim and the review contemplated. Katholo has revealed that the DIS is demanding investigation files of the DCEC, ostensibly under national security threat investigation but is not disclosing whether the national security threat relates to the DCEC as an institution, its Director General, the Staff Officer or the investigations currently undertaken by the DCEC, and if so, which ones in particular.
He said their preliminary investigations have revealed that such officers have “corruptly caused to be stopped and or interfered with tender proceedings or decisions in five projects, under the pretext of national security threat investigations ostensibly to mask the solicitation of bribe in the said projects; are in possession of assets disproportionate to their known sources of income requiring explanation in terms of Section 34 of CECA; received bribes or valuable consideration to show favour and or allowed their conduct to be influenced by gifts in the execution of their duties; gross abuse of power with respect to Butterfly case investigation; and sponsored leakage of DCEC investigation files.” According to Katholo, since the investigation of the famous ‘ Butterfly case’, the DCEC and other law agencies, the DIS has been demanding, without lawful authority, investigation files of the DCEC, which files, according to my understanding are protected by law and cannot be given to anyone demanding them without lawful causes.” The judge issued an interim order that the matter is adjudged as urgent and the rules of the court in so far as they relate to time limits, service of process, and other related matters be hereby dispensed with. He also ordered that the application shall be heard in camera and that to the extent necessary, authority is granted to the Applicant to initiate the current proceedings.
“A deputy sheriff of the court accompanied by Applicant’s attorneys, a representative of the Attorney General and under the escort of the Botswana Police Service and more especially the Special Support Group ( SSG) shall attend at the offices of the DCEC and take custody of the documents and or the records and or the dockets as are demanded by the DIS and in the two offices currently sealed as crime scenes, and deposited into Court and be held in the custody of the Registrar of the High Court and the same to be placed in a vault and to be opened only by the Registrar or one of her Deputies, Deputy Sheriff of the Court, and in the presence of attorneys of Monthe Marumo & Company and representatives of the Attorney General,” Justice Lekorwe said.
Justice Lekorwe granted a rule nisi ex parte
calling upon the Respondents or any party acting through him and or on his instructions or instructing him, to show cause on June 30th of 2022 or soon thereafter as counsel may be heard why orders should not be made final.
“I aver that sometime in December 2021 DCEC investigators were unlawfully detained by the DISS ostensibly on the basis of cases investigated by such officers which were said to be ( sic) interest to the DISS because of the national security threat investigations it was carrying out.
“I deny these allegations. I categorically state that the DISS does not enjoy supervisory authority on the administration or operations of the DCEC and therefore has no lawful authority to forcefully demand operational information in the custody of the DCEC as it currently does.
“I aver that the DCEC is currently conducting investigations involving some officers of the DIS, and some of these officers are alive to these investigations. Some of these officers are highly placed within the DIS.
“I state that it is not in the public interest for me to hand over or give access to investigation files of the DCEC to persons in the DIS who are suspects in some of the said investigation files.
“I believe that such a conduct on my part would be an affront on the rule of law. In our assessment, it will defeat the ends of justice to give access to the DIS such files and or information, over and above the fact that they are in law not entitled to same,” Katholo said.