- the sectors have historically posed significant challenges for the agency to combat corruption
The corruption busting agency, Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) has revealed its roadmap for this financial year, prioritising its anti-corruption efforts in three high risk sectors being procurement, land and transport licensing.
According to DCEC Director General, Botlhale Makgekgenene, these sectors have historically posed significant challenges to the agency’s efforts to combat corruption. She said the intention is to ensure the three-pronged strategy comes into action in these three key areas.
During a meet and greet session for the media in Francistown, Makgekgenene revealed that the DCEC has also instituted investigations into parastatals which are currently at various stages.
“The Directorate is aware of corruption allegations within state owned institutions. Each state-owned enterprise has one or more cases which are under investigation. The major issue which cuts across all the concerned state-owned enterprises is more on poor regulation, non-compliance and procurement processes”, continued Makgekgenene.
The director general added, “we are also aware of high-profile cases reported in some parts of the media, which I know have your keen interest. While these are not yet ready to be shared with the media, please be assured that when the time is right, we will call you for a press conference where we will avail details regarding these cases.”
As of December 31st, last year, the directorate had an overall case load of 1 603 out of which 1 045 are under active investigation, with 350 of the cases being assessed by the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) if they are worthy to be tried in Court.
“Last year alone we submitted 62 cases to DPP for possible prosecution and seven cases have been tried and finalized in Courts. The figure is indeed very small but we count them as wins considering that cases of corruption take time to investigate and to prosecute”, said Makgekgenene.
In 2024 alone, the DCEC received 687 reports alleging corruption and economic crime out of which 238 of them were classified for investigation. Makgekgenene said the rest of the reports have been referred to relevant institutions for action.
“The 238 reports which have been classified for investigation represent 34 percent of the total reports DCEC received. And of these 238 cases, 221 are corruption related, and 10 are of money laundering related while seven are economic crimes”, revealed Makgekgenene.
Meanwhile the DCEC boss has indicated that currently, the agency is very thin on the ground in terms of human capital, resources and budget.
