The Leader of Opposition (LOO) Dithapelo Keorapetse has revealed that the country records an average of 391 suicides every year, a sign that depression and stress are at level of national crisis.
He further said crime has reached alarming rate of seven women getting raped every day, whilst 1,515 robberies; 17 Auto Teller Machines (ATM) were bombed, and 7800 property crimes were reported in the last 12 months.
“We have become one of the most unsafe societies and crime remains unacceptably high. If we don’t resource our police with vehicles and modern equipment and hire more officers, including absorbing Special Constables into the mainstream service and improving conditions of service for our men and women in uniform, we will remain unsafe,” said Keorapetse when responding to the Budget Speech by the Minister of Finance Peggy Serame this week.
The LOO said corruption, mismanagement, secrecy, maladministration and wasteful expenditure are bleeding the economy as millions of Pula go down the drain unaccounted for. He said while sophisticated elite corruption is on the increase especially in procurement, conviction of the same remains very low.
“As at June 2022, office of the receiver has received 38 court orders for seizure of properties of various descriptions. The office has Total Property Portfolio Under Receiver’s Management stood at P230, 732,163.42, including cash at bank of P148,847.861.17 and residential properties worth P42,753,000.00.,” Keorapetse revealed.
The DCEC, he said, estimates the nation close to P600million in corruption in the last 11 months and that many of the corruption involves foreign nationals. He said in one instance, a Chinese company was awarded a contract at the value of P800 million when all companies had bid and passed evaluation at P160 less.
“Where is the P160 million going?”
He said the UDC is going to bring a motion to probe corruption in water tenders and will evidence of wrongdoing. He also said the main opposition party will further bring a DCEC Amendment Bill to make it more independent.
“We will also bring an urgent motion calling for an independent enquiry into the unlawful conduct of the DIS, including corrupt activities and meddling in mega tenders,” he said.
The Leader of Opposition said they are going to engage British lawmakers to make enquiries about De-Beers Diamond Mining Company and its dealings, including reports that it could be owing the government of Botswana around P7billion in taxes.
“The UDC is in possession of some parts of the report and we will be demanding it in full. Still on mining, P1.8 billion used in BCL liquidation has not been audited to verify prudence”.
The party said it recommends stiff penalties and closing of loopholes for perpetrators of tax evasion and avoidance, non-payment or false payment of royalties, under declaration of production and strengthening of monitoring of mining operations.
“We recommend a clear plan with targets for maximum collection of mining revenue. All businesses of a size that BURS could determine, must have payment terminals in the form of Electronic Data Capture Machine/Card swipe machine linked to BURS to monitor transactions. Restrictions should imposed on cash transactions to set ceiling of how much one can pay with cash,” he said.
