DCEC needs to streamline division of labour
Katlholo promises to foster and promote accountability
The new Director General of Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) Tymon Katlholo has one priority as he starts work at the corruption busting agency - to streamline the division of labour for efficient execution of investigations.
Speaking to Botswana Guardian, Katlholo said the problem that DCEC has today is not because the officers are failing or that all his predecessors have failed, but that the division of labour is blurred.
Katlholo said the problem that this country is facing, is good governance, respect for the rule of law and respect for division of labour.
“That is the only line that we have to correct or normalise
. It appears there are many players doing investigations,” he said. For example, he said it’s often said that corruption is being done by the Directorate on Intelligence and Security Service (DIS) and then the next day it has changed and is being done by DCEC.
“This kind of set up makes people to wonder on how things are being done,” he observed.
Katlholo who started work on Tuesday said accountability gets compromised where role clarity is not crystal clear. “All that we need to do is, I must foster and promote accountability. It must be noted that accountability is promoted by role clarity”.
Katlholo said newspaper reports have clearly demonstrated that role clarity in certain offices including the DCEC are not clearly defined and confined to the standards.
Katlholo is a member of the Advisory Committee on Ethics. He is conversant with all the matters raised there and occasionally gives lectures on governance and ethics at the University of Botswana.
Under his leadership Katlholo does not see operational matters as a big deal because he wants to build the DCEC of the future which will be relevant even more than 50 years from now.
“As a nation we must strengthen the institutions, instil a culture of integrity, instil a culture where the rule of law is respected and then you are done with corruption,” he said, adding that the purpose of combating corruption is merely to promote good governance.
“You cannot claim good governance when you do not fight corruption. But you cannot fight corruption when you do not respect the tenets of good governance which is transparency and accountability and to a certain extent, the rule of law. These are the principles which direct you on how to conduct your business”.
Katlholo explained that in good governance and fighting corruption, there are a number of boxes that must be considered. These are the boxes that provide for national constitution, laws, procedures, processes and values, which constitutes the value system.
In another box there is the executive, that is the decision making and those decisions whenever they are taken, they must make reference to the constitution or first box.
The third box is monitoring. It is the box that fosters accountability in decision making to ensure that decisions taken are consistent with the standards or values that are taken.
Then comes in the delivery, which is about public service. It must also conform to the standards set. Then there is private sector which is about growth and, or growing the economy.
He explained that whatever happens in all the boxes reference must be made to the value system. “That is what constitutes a national integrity system which promotes good governance because it provides some checks and balances on each other”.
The latest report of Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) 2020 under resource efficiency states that Botswana has been extensively accredited for its judicious usage and management of its resources.
Despite this, broad-based growth has eluded the country in part because of its slow exertions to diversify the economy, making the country susceptible to outside shocks such as those evidenced during the 2008 and 2009 Great Recession.
The report said generally the government has sustained effective and efficient coordination of its policies and maintained its rolling national development plans (NDPs) as its framework for defining development priorities. NDP 11 became operational in April 2017 and was aligned to the country’s Vision 2036.
Even so, structural constraints continue to make it difficult to reconcile sound monetary policies with pressures to alleviate poverty, create jobs and contain HIV/AIDS. The government has continued its policy of prioritising macroeconomic stability over high social expenditures.
For instance, the government has, to the chagrin of the public sector unions, been consistent in rejecting higher salary increases since 2011, due to poor economic performance. Corruption
BTI report states that government has yet to approve the National Anti-Corruption Policy. Meanwhile, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) remains the country’s flagship institution with a primary role in combating corruption and economic crime applying its three-pronged strategy of investigation, corruption prevention, and public education.
A zero-tolerance policy toward corruption has also been maintained, as well as a reputation of being Africa’s least corrupt country.
“Nevertheless, the DCEC’s perceived lack of independence persisted and this has raised doubts on its effectiveness,” the report noted.
Interestingly, the private media has continued to report on a number of cases involving senior public officials and politicians that have generally slipped through political, legal or technical loopholes, giving rise to adverse publicity for the DCEC.
Failure to successfully prosecute senior officials and politicians has been interpreted as a lack of political will in fighting high-level corruption, with the DCEC being criticised for concentrating its efforts on low-level corruption.
The government has, however, established a special court to expedite corruption cases. The DCEC has also sustained a Botswana Business Ethics Forum, in partnership with the University of Botswana states the report.