In his last State of the Nation Address towards the end of last year, President Ian Khama made a very startling revelation that left the entire nation shocked.
The President said Government was losing at least a million Pula weekly as a result of false invoicing by contractors.
We always knew that contractors were taking government for a ride, but we did not have a clue it was at that scale.
In his address, the president put the whole thing not only into perspective, but also put the statistical dimension to it.
Mercifully, the President went on to say that Government was doing everything to close the loopholes.
That is welcome.
We call on Government to go beyond just plugging the holes, but also make efforts to recover the money lost to the state.
We learn with shock that the milking of Government by this unscrupulous behaviour is not just restricted to foreign companies.
Citizen contractors are using this false invoicing as a honey pot, sometimes going as far as to overcharge government in the region of 100 percent inflated prices.
That is abhorrable.
The first thing that immediately comes to mind is robbery.
This behavior is just as bad as abandoning government jobs after claiming a portion of the fees.
If allowed to continue, it will bring government on its knees.
Perhaps in the past there was room for such chicanery when Botswana Government had enough revenue to be able to absorb thieving of such a magnitude.
There was a perception that money was not such a big issue for Botswana Government. Not anymore! Like many other economies across the globe, Botswana government is cash strapped.
The economic difficulties that we are grappling with as a nation mean that every penny has to be accounted for.
We call on the security agencies like DCEC and DIS to help government in not only detecting who the culprits siphoning Government money are, but also tracing the paper trail so as to recover the stolen money.
There should be no mercy extended to government officials found to be abetting these crimes.
Steps should also be taken to name and shame the companies involved.
Even more, such companies should be blacklisted and urgent steps taken to exclude the same companies and or individuals from the government procurement system.
We want to emphasise once again that project managers in the form of consultants and or civil servants who are supposed to be representing government also have to be closely scrutinized.
These are the people who for most of the time receive these fraudulent claims and authorize payment for the same.
What is most disheartening is to find that citizens who the government is trying so hard to use its empowerment system to grow them and their businesses also happen to be the ones who are at the forefront of this fraud schemes.
We call on Government to crack the whip.
The starting point should be to audit all invoice payment that look suspicious.
We are informed that in other instances, Government has had to pay double for the construction of road strips.
Suspicion is that contractors and consultants, probably with the involvement of officials and engineers at the Department of Roads are colluding.
