Council officer dismissed over corruption

 

An accounts clerk with the Palapye Sub-District Council was late last month dismissed after it was established that he had swindled the local authority large sums of money over a period of five years.

An audit at the sub-district council conducted by independent auditors from the Local Government and Rural Development Ministry led to the dismissal of Lucky Malete (50) of Gootau village in the Tswapong South constituency.

The audit unearthed evidence of extremely poor financial management and a governance framework, which is simply not fit for purpose.

Northern Extra is reliably informed that Malete was fingered as the mastermind behind acts of fraud and corruption at the council.

Sandy Letumile Mosarwa, Public Relations Officer at the Central District Council (CDC), could not deny nor confirm that an accounts clerk at one of the CDC’s sub-districts was sacked from the job.  “My lips are very tight to discuss the matter that you are enquiring with you,” said Mosarwa.

Information passed on to this publication is that the dismissed accounts clerk had been enlisting ghost employees on salaries’ list for the past six years and the amount of money fleeced through the Palapye Sub-District runs into over a million.

Assistant Commissioner Christopher Mbulawa, Head of Public Relations Unit at the Botswana Police Service (BPS) confirmed that the police launched a probe into the alleged fraud some time back.