Pressure mounts on Isaac Kgosi

Botswana Congress Party (BCP) is adamant that the director of DISS, Isaac Kgosi should be prosecuted over the P250m that they say he has “corruptly withdrawn” from the National Petroleum Fund (NPF).

BCP president, Dumelang Saleshando said this when addressing a press conference adding the money was withdrawn corruptly and unlawfully. He highlighted that NPF has regulations set by National Assembly therefore there is no how DISS Director could simply do a memo demanding for the money. 

“Any official who purpose to bend the law of parliament or rewrite the laws should be punished for trying to do that,” said Saleshando reiterating that Kgosi committed a criminal offence by acting corruptly when he transferred the funds. 

He said that they even propose that the fraud be escalated but the funds be rather used for military or surveillance equipment. He labelled Kgosi as a “criminal minded officer of government” and emphasised that some of this corruption has received maximum protection under President Ian Khama.

Saleshando further said that in order to fix this issue, they are going to approach UDC and propose that they must be a player, and specifically get an order directing that the funds be transferred back to the Petroleum Fund. 

He said that it is important to assure Batswana that the funds that were expropriated illegally will go back to where they should be. On the other hand, he stated that UDC has to also find out why Kgosi has not been prosecuted to date while investigations on his corruption allegations have been completed more than a year ago. 

He explained that DCEC has long done its part and sent back the file to DPP. Saleshando said that it is about time they get answers because they do not want situations whereby DPP end up deciding that they no longer want to pursue the case and they be blamed for having also been relaxed without asking about it.

He also said that if they cannot get the answer as to why Kgosi has not been prosecuted, and otherwise it is time to do something for the nation.

 He said it would be better to have to ask willing partners to consider taking the private prosecution route and make sure that fairness and justice prevail in this matter.

Nonetheless, Saleshando has applauded DCEC on this issue, saying that most of them have condemned it for many years, as they believed that it only focuses on small fish. 

“They need applause because in this particular instance they have moved swiftly although there are some missing names which also need to come out to also answer for their deeds,” he said.