Botswana Police Service has finally completed its five-year marathon investigations surrounding the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) welfare fund that was allegedly defrauded of about P165 millions.
Scores of soldiers are likely to be prosecuted as the criminal docket has now been handed over to the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) for possible prosecution.
Serious Crimes Squad commander, Detective Senior Superintendent Penyoitsele Nnanaakoko confirmed to this publication this week that investigations surrounding the BDF welfare fund are now complete.
“It is true that we have completed our investigations. Investigations took a very long time and that was not anticipated at all,” he said.
He said the investigations that involved the Police and BDF took probably six years to be completed adding that this was due to the complexity of the investigations.
“There was a lot of paper trail involved and to trace those who matter the most to record the statements was also a challenge. But the investigators did their best to round up whoever is allegedly implicated,” said Nnanaakoko.
“I’m happy to say that the criminal docket has now been forwarded to the DPP,” hedded.
DPP will decide whether it will prosecute those implicated or not.
Nnanaakoko further stated that he is not at liberty to reveal the number of soldiers implicated. “But it is a good number of them who are likely to be charged for fraud.”
He further stated that BDF officials played a very crucial role during the investigations as they did not hide any information that was needed from them.
The fund was set up in 1991 using contributions from the BDF officers in a bid to encourage a culture of saving within the army. In 2007 the Welfare fund was registered as a trust fund to assist soldiers to make their monthly contributions.
