Statistics Botswana

Statistics Botswana (SB) has strongly denied any involvement in acts of favouritism as complained by scores of citizens following the authority’s decision to recruit 200 temporary employees from the Gaborone labour office only.

Some former provisional employees who approached The Midweek Sun crying foul strongly felt that Gaborone residents were given preference over other citizens of the country. They also claimed that most of the rented cars deployed in the Multi-Topic household (BMTHS) survey belong to SB directors and South African companies.

When reached for comment regarding the allegations of bias, SB Communications, Documentation and Dissemination Manager, Lilian Setimela vehemently denied the accusation as baseless and devoid of any truth. She explained that all recruitment of temporary employees this year was done from the head office in Gaborone.

“Other Statistics offices across the country were not involved in the exercise including Francistown Regional office. Of the 200 temporary employees recruited, 100 are National Service Participants (Tirelo Setshaba) who were supplied to us through the Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture (MYSC), while the other 100 were sourced from Gaborone Labour office with the assistance of Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs,” Setimela added. She also denied allegations of favouritism in sourcing private vehicles to be used during the survey.

“Statistics Botswana has no knowledge of any director who is a shareholder among all the current suppliers. We have sourced out 25 vehicles from private companies as the organisation endeavours to use locally registered vehicles for its field work operations to avoid any ambiguity and resistance during data collections. However, our experience is that due to the limited availability of the appropriate vehicles required for rental in the Botswana market, companies operating in Botswana that are awarded contracts by Statistics Botswana often seek assistance from their sister companies across the border. Such vehicles are then registered locally prior to use in the field to comply with Statistics Botswana’s requirements,” she added.

When quizzed about the previous recruitment procedure, Setimela said that in their previous surveys including the just ended Agricultural survey, the department recruited field workers through MYSC and the Department of Labour and Home Affairs. “MYSC requested national service district coordinators to recruit TSPs from their various districts while the department of Labour recruited temporary workers in their regions on a first come basis list.

Statistics Botswana did not favour people from Gaborone as the recruitment was done through MYSC and Labour who had the sole mandate to recruit temporary employees,” she explained.