Wynter Mmolotsi
The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) is set to stifle debate on the misuse of the national disaster fund by the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DISS).
Through a noticed motion to be tabled by Member of Parliament for Gaborone South, Kagiso Molatlhegi, the BDP would use a majority vote to reject the debate on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report which exposed embezzlement of over P26 million into the DISS account during the last two financial years.
PAC chairman and Member of Parliament for Tati East Guma Moyo tabled the report in Parliament on July 21 and this Friday the house was to debate the matter, but Molatlhegi is set to table a counter motion to stop Moyo from washing the President’s Office’s dirty linen in public.
Molatlhegi’s contention as according to the motion is that Moyo’s report “be rejected because it is an abuse of process.”
The move have angered and disappointed members of Parliament who were eager to represent the nation’s interest in the matter. Among them are members of the newly formed political movement, Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD).
“When it (motion) reaches this point, there will be no option but to call for votes and they (BDP) will use the majority advantage to close the matter. We will never get to know what happened to the national funds,” Francistown South MP, Wynter Mmolotsi told a Ramotswa meeting on Wednesday, at which BMD was welcoming another defecting BDP MP, Odirile Motlhale.
In fact four BMD members, Mmolotsi, Moyo, Nehemiah Modubule and Motlhale were part of the PAC that produced the report.
During the examination of the State President Ministry, PAC found out that a sum of P16 million from the National Disaster Relief Fund was used for purposes other than for which the fund was established and without authority of the Accounting Officer of the fund or that of the Finance Minister and Development Planning.
The contention was that because DISS was established during the course of the 2007/08 financial year there were no other available funds to operate it other than to borrow from the disaster relief fund.
However although DISS had a full budget for both recurrent and development purposes in 2008/2009 financial year, it further used P10 967 531 from the Fund.
If somebody still doubts whether there can be no earthquake in Botswana, :
Go to mmegi page, then click on “archives”, then “2008”, then “December 17”, you will find the article there with headline …..”Botswana to get earthquake detectors”…………read this article then read all my comments above and get back to me:
ChrisM, this article will now make you look like a fool even more!! I am here to tell people the truth, not lies like you and your BDP leaders do all the time. Earthquakes can strike Botswana anytime due to the activity of faults that resulted in the east african rift valley reaching the north western part of Botswana. So go back chrisM and do some more research, read then come back home and learn the facts on the ground before you embarass yourself further!!!
@monza, its good to learn that you are now acknowledging that there was an earthquake in Botswana recently though it was not of high magnitude. Let me also remind you that an “earthquake” in setswana is “thoromoya lefatshe”. There is a term called “epicenter” which means the origin of the earthquake which can be some several kilometers away from where you are feeling the earthquake. The epicenter can be a volcanic eruption or a fault where two bedrocks rub against each other causing the shock waves to travel huge distances and we will feel those shock waves as earth vibrations, which is an “earthquake”. The “earthquake” you felt in Gaborone might have had its epicenter several kilometers away from Gaborone. So my point here is that next time, there can be an earthquake with a much higher magnitude leaving several people homeless. So imagine, after such a huge natural disater, the government of the day tells you that it does not have money to help its citizens because money meant for that have been diverted to DIS which was not “urgently” needed at the time. Beside that, the diversion of those funds was done unlawfully by people who have no power to divert funds from other ministries!! That is my point and all others here.
o taa thola o nkaraba rra.? ware thoromo e nnile leng kae?
scandy thokomologa batho bao,ke diso!!!
scandy wa re DIS ws not worth it,tlogelang go itsietsa.rite now diphiri le dikoloto tse go neng go itirelelwa fela di a duelwa.ga go ope o o ta tswang fela xcept rre wa go ja bolokwa a sena thogo.
@kakana, the truth ke gore diphiri tse o buang ka tsone di tswa fela from there no actions are being taken to bring the pepetrators to justice ka gore they are the ones who are in charge of this country and they are more powerful than u an ordinary motswana and they beat the supremacy of the constitution.
DISnyana yoo wa gago was meant to supress the poor and keep the ruling elite in power.It is there to advance the interests of the rich families and the ones loyal to current regime.They can do as they plizes, they are going to destroy you and your future! GOD BLESS BOTSWANA.
Guys if the government is going to give out a lot of money to th DISS just to waste if and leave out us on the education side,think about it again,cuz i havn’t seen anything impressive about the department,they just beating up people and thats it,our government should take a step on this one and open up the debate,no doubt about that one
ya,lenyoloi ga o yake batho bao ke diso.ba nnetse go kitima mo ba bechela banyana ba bone ka madi bare nba dira ditlhotlhomiso ba yaka.ba siana after petty issues .batho ba rekisa di drugs ,bama nigeria le ma simbakwe ba dirisa passport ya botswana go tlola d….. nonsense e palelwa ke go ba tshwara.diso tse go tweng mapodisi a botswana .mxweeeeee.
we must nt wait til disaster strikes;we can nt hav a country without bo DIS,america cant deal without CIA,FBI etc,thats needed in evry developn country,bt ke gore rona as batswana we hav never bin affcted by terrorism,time wil come nd we wil see the iportance of DIS,bt i dont encourage corruption