Member of Parliament for Okavango constituency, Kenny Kapinga, has questioned the criteria used by the government when doing budget allocation.
When debating, Appropriation (2023/2024) Bill, 2023 (NO. 4 OF 2023) Kapinga said that it is better to close down the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) as it is overlooked over Directorate on Intelligence and Security (DIS). “DCEC which is supposed to be a flag bearer in the fight against corruption gets a P144, 883, 410 from a previous allocation of P133, 611, 840, meaning they got only a P11 million, increase in the budget despite fighting crime.”
Kapinga said the budget allocated to DCEC proves that there is a clear demonstration that the government does not have intentions to strengthen DCEC to achieve its objectives of fighting corruption. “This should hit you in the face because you are just fooling the public about fighting corruption. DIS gets P607 lion, that small organisation gets P607, 866, 140 an increase of P147, 060, 400. The amount that DIS got as an increase surpasses the DCEC annual budget. It is a very clear demonstration of where you priorities lie.”
Kapinga explained that in the security sector, there are three subsectors being public security, state security, and defence.” He said that among the three, the one that should be looked into is public security, which has Police, prison Warders, and other law enforcement organisations. “The figures here clearly demonstrate that public security is second class in your list of priorities in the security sector.”
He said that with the little funds being allocated to an organisation that fights corruption, the mission is going to be impossible. “This clearly demonstrates that you have condemned the DCEC into a state of oblivion, their home and work places. People are crying, they are not safe even at their work places as some get attacked during work and if somebody calls the police, reporting crime at a house next door, they do not expect a soldier to turn up with an AK 47 on his shoulder or DIS officer when there is a fraud case, it is a responsibility of the Botswana police who have been vested with the power to investigate criminal offenses in this country, not DIS, not Botswana Defence Force,” said the former police officer further noting that public security should be number one priority because it addresses people’s safety in the streets, in their home and work places.
BDF has been allocated P5, 747, 892, 350 and increase of P839, 896, 800 from the previous allocation, while Police is getting P3, 136, 675, 790, an increase of P299, 319, 940.
Kapinga said that the amount allocated to Police is almost a third of the increase that the BDF has gotten this year.