The Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) was hamstrung to investigate suspended Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP) Carter Morupisi whilst in office even though they had reasons to investigate him for corruption.
This was revealed by senior state lawyer Kentse Molome this past Tuesday when Morupisi and his wife, Pinny Morupisi appeared for their second mention since being charged with corruption.
The duo appeared before Regional Magistrate Masilo Mathaka.
Molome submitted in court that, “The DCEC could only investigate Morupisi after the suspension took place. There were some systematic procedures that had to wait for the suspension because you would know that the DCEC fell under the accused’s office.”
Molome further stated that the state has charged Morupisi and his wife but they have not really charged them; “This is just a holding charge. This is why we have not asked them to take a plea.”
Molome’s statements irked the presiding Magistrate who then demanded to know why the state had to rush the case to court before they could complete investigations.
“We will conclude investigations by next year end of February. We will be ready to commit the case to the high court for trial on the next mention. We are yet to get statements from other witnesses. The arrest of Tim Marsland, in South Africa also slowed down our process,” Molome explained.
For his part Defense Lawyer, Busang Manewe pleaded with the court to drop the charges against his clients with an option to reinstate the charges at a later stage.
“We will be here. We will wait for them; let the charges be dropped for now whilst they conclude their investigations. The court cannot allow a country to be run like this, where people charge people with the hope to later find something that will incriminate them. This is meddling with people’s livelihoods and careers,” Manewe argued.
Mathaka refused to grant a withdrawal of the charges against the embattled former PSP citing that this was only his second mention. The case will come back to court February 17, 2020.
Morupisi is charged together with his wife and the company, R7 Group in which she is the director.
According to the charge sheet, Morupisi faces three counts being abuse of office, acceptance of bribe by a public officer and money laundering while his wife is charged with a single count of money laundering.
The accused couple is on P10, 000 bail each.