A bitter feud between the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) over highly classified files will be decided by the High Court.
Justice Reuben Lekorwe of the Lobatse High Court on Monday interdicted the DIS from seizing highly classified files from DCEC Director General Tymon Katlholo’s office.
The judge also issued an order that the explosive case which is expected open a can of worms be held in camera when the matter resumes.
Katlholo who approached the High Court through an urgent application made some serious allegations against the DIS detailing how at least five national projects worth billions of Pula were cancelled by some high ranking officials of the intelligence agency under the pretext of national security so that they could solicit bribes.
“Our investigations have thus far revealed that such offers have: corruptly caused stoppage of five projects, under the pretext of national security threat investigations ostensibly to mask the solicitation of bribes in the said projects,” he said.
In 2019 DIS stopped a P900 million tender to China Jiangsu International Botswana over unconfirmed claims. At the time, the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Service instructed the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) to cancel the tender it had awarded to the Chinese company.
According to Katlholo’s application, some DIS officials “Are in possession of assets disproportionate to their known sources of income requiring explanation in terms of section 34 of the Corruption and Economic Crime (CECA), received bribes or valuable consideration to show favour and/or allowed their conduct to be influenced by gifts in the execution of their duties.”
He added that their investigations have thus far revealed “Gross abuse of power with respect to “Butterfly Case” investigations, sponsored leakage of DCEC investigation files.”
Therefore, Katlholo said: “In our assessment, it will defeat the ends of justice to give access to the DIS such files/or information over and above the fact that they in law not entitled to same.”
Katlholo reiterated that the DCEC is currently conducting investigations involving some officers of the DISS and some of these officers are alive to these investigations. “Some of these officers are highly placed within the DISS,” revealed Katlholo.
He added that, “I state that it is not in the public interest for me to handover or give access the investigation files of the DCEC to persons in the DISS who are suspects in some of the said investigation files. I believe that such a conduct on my part would be an affront on the rule of law.”
Katlholo further indicated that the DCEC as an oversight institution has a mandate to investigate any person, including officers of the DISS on allegations of any corrupt activities by such persons.
“To this end I do hereby tender to this court to examine the files of such identified officers of the DISS (under confidential circumstances) in order for the court to assess where on the evidence, it is legally permissible and does not undermine the rule of law for officers of DIS to have access to such files and/or records and even to classify where such files are kept as a crime scene,” said Katlholo.
According to Katlholo’s application, “Since the investigation of the famous “Butterfly Case,” by the DCEC and other law agencies, the DISS has been demanding, without lawful authority, investigations files of the DCEC, which files, according to my understanding, are protected by law and cannot be given to any one demanding them without lawful cause.”
He revealed that sometime in December 2021 DCEC investigators “were unlawfully detained by the DISS ostensibly on the basis of cases investigated by such officers were said to be of interest to DISS because of the national security threat investigations it was carrying out. I deny these allegations.”
Katlholo said the DISS does not enjoy supervisory authority on the administration or operations of the DCEC and therefore has no lawful authority to forcefully demand operational information in the custody of the DCEC as it currently does.
“I further aver that any institution requesting information from the DCEC must state the specific information requested as opposed to demanding to be availed the whole investigation files of the DCEC,” he said.
He added that “… even worse when the demand relates to all highly classified investigative materials in the custody of the Director General of the DCEC which information is not even accessible to any other officer of the DCEC, save for the Staff Office, who may be privy to some but not all, such information virtue of his portfolio of responsibility.”
Justice Lekorwe granted Katlholo a temporary Court Order calling upon the Respondent (Attorney General representing the DIS) or any party acting through his or on his instructions to show cause why the following orders should not be made a final order of the court:
-The current application should be heard in camera, to the extent necessary, granting the Applicant (Katholo) authority to initiate the current proceedings.
–A Deputy Sherriff of the Court accompanied by the Applicant’s attorney , a representative of the Attorney General and under the escort of the Botswana Police Service and more especially the Special Support Group (SSG) shall attend at the office of the DCEC and take custody of the documents and /or the records and/or the dockets as are demanded by DISS and deposited into Court and be held in the custody of the Registrar of the High Court and same to be placed in a vault and to be opened only by the Registrar or one of her Deputies, Deputy Sherriff of the Court and the presence of attorney of Monthe Marumo & Co. and representatives of the Attorney General.
-Pending the determination of and the review contemplated therein the DISS of any of its officers or Agent or any party claiming through it shall not have access to such dockets, files or records save as may be authorized by Court.
In recent years, the DIS has received negative review on their alleged interference in the awarding of high capital projects especially those at Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services worth billions of Pula.
The DIS has since denied that they are involved in awarding of tenders and that they have stopped some tenders from being awarded to certain companies.
