BOFEPUSU wants PSP Peloetletse charged for corruption
Botswana Federation of Public Private and Parastatal Sectors Union (BOFEPUSU) says the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) should be emboldened by the Carter Morupisi case to pursue bigger fish to root out corruption.
The federation deserves to be informed that the recent conviction of a former Permanent Secretary to the President, Carter Morupisi, the most powerful position in the public service, is a culmination of concerted efforts by
Employee Trustees sitting in the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF) Board who were the first whistle-blowers on corruption promoted by none other than the chairman, in cahoots with a willing and aiding Principal Officer.
BOFEPUSU Secretariat noted in a statement that the conviction of a high-profile civil servant in a corruption case, though too little too late, is a step in the right direction towards rooting out corruption that has become entrenched in the government system.
“This is very disturbing, particularly at government enclave where names of presidents - current and former, are repeatedly mentioned in dubious transactions that have all the hallmarks of abuse of office and enabling corruption by those holding the levers of power.
“If a whole head of state can be corrupted cheaply, we shudder to imagine what of the small man, the civil servants who are charged with delivering services to the nation,” the federation said.
BOPEFUSU which is also a labour centre stated that they are aware that some of the BPOPF money obtained fraudulently and laundered to willing partners in crime, was also used by CMB Directors and “their errand boys, cited in the Morupisi judgement, to sponsor President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s campaign for BDP Chairmanship in Mmadinare in 2015 and later at the camp Dubai in Tonota two years later in 2017.”
The federation pointed out that this is in sworn statements before the Registrar of the High Court who is handling the liquidation of CMB.
According to the secretariat, the Morupisi conviction, based on documents and evidence led in court by the DCEC/DPP is only a tip of an iceberg, an eye opener on how senior government officers and politicians have turned
the BPOPF into a cash cow they haemorrhage willy-nilly.
“The DPP, DCEC should be emboldened by the small victory to pursue bigger fish to root out corruption once and for all. From time immemorial, cabinet ministers and senior leadership in local authorities (district councils) have been repeatedly found to have partnered and acted in concert with unscrupulous entities that stole and embezzled public funds.
“The Bluethorn saga where one of the former directors- then a council chairman, was Masisi’s campaign manager both in Mmadinare and Tonota, is still fresh in our minds.
“It does not come as a surprise that we hear that the Masisi’s lavish camp Dubai in 2017 Tonota congress of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), was hosted on a farm owned by the current Permanent Secretary,” the federation revealed.
BOFEPUSU indicated that pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place, and it makes perfect sense when one considers that at the height of DCEC investigation into the conduct of the current PSP Emma Peloetletse when she sat in the BPOPF Board of Trustees, Masisi promoted her from an Accountant General to a PSP.
“Could this have been done to thank her for the Tonota hospitality or the comradeship at BDP, or even worse, to cushion her against being scrutinised by graft busters from DCEC?" the federation wondered.
It explained in the statement that at BPOPF, Peloetletse who was an Employer Trustee (Board member), had been found to have accepted a favourable consideration from same directors of CMB who corrupted Morupisi, in the form of a fully paid-up family holiday in Cape Town, South Africa.