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Botswana: Timely Reforms At Local Government Level
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
EDITORIAL
17 April 2008
Posted to the web 17 April 2008
Lately, there have been calls to review councillors' conditions of service. It is appropriate that our governance institutions are occasionally reviewed to ascertain their relevance to the changing times and circumstances.
In the ongoing public debate, aspects that have been proposed for review in relation to councillors include: the exclusion of councillors from the council tender committees; the policy that permits government industrial cadre to continue in their employment when they become councillors; and the scandalous nomination of councillors.
It is beyond comprehension how our system has for long encouraged what amounts to corruption in the council tendering process. As we understand it, tender committees are basically an adjudication mechanism. Yet it has been an open secret that most councillors own companies or have direct interests in companies that tender for the provision of goods and services to councils. It is clearly a free for all arrangement where councillors parcel out the tenders to themselves, friends and relatives. What rot! Little wonder, therefore that many local government projects are not properly implemented. Most are left unfinished while the perpetrators continue to be awarded more tenders.
Government must expeditiously move to bar councillors from council tender committees. It is amazing that the DCEC, at least up to this stage, has not been able to tackle the naked corruption and economic crimes at councils. This week the Minister of Local Government, Margaret Nasha vowed to do away with a special dispensation that allows industrial class council employees to double as councillors. She reasoned that such an arrangement is riddled with conflict of interest scenarios. While we wholly agree with the minister's position on the matter, we nevertheless implore her to consult with the manual workers' union, with whom such an agreement was signed in 1975. We also implore the union to be willing to do away with this archaic dispensation.
In regard to the nomination of councillors, the public (including many ruling party legislators) has long pronounced itself on this matter. It is not only undemocratic but also outdated.
It is our contention that most of the proposed reviews are as a result of perceived conflict of interest. In addition to endorsing the intended reviews, we urge government to urgently start the process of enacting the long-shelved Declaration of Assets Bill into law. In view of the increasing cases of corruption in our society, the political leadership should walk the talk in the fight against graft.
Today's Thought
Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort.
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- John Ruskin
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