The Minister of Lands and Housing Prince Maele’s may have taken the down and dirty route in his attempt to dodge queries about the controversial Land Administration Procedures Capacity and Systems (LAPCAS) project.
The Minister this week tried to mislead the Sunday Standard into believing that his ministry was never threatened with court action over the controversial land project although leaked documents show that he was slapped with a petition challenging the legality of LAPCAS.
“If there is anyone who wanted to challenge that I would have known. There is no how the Attorney General could be given instructions to defend my Ministry without my knowledge or that of my Permanent Secretary. If there was a contentious issue I would know,” he said. But documents passed to Sunday Standard show that Maele’s ministry received a petition from Ndadi Law firm on 21 October 2014 on behalf of Botswana Surveying and Mapping Association.
Reports indicate that the programme may be experiencing problems because of poor corporate governance.
“The current head of LAPCAS has been with the project for seven years now, since 2009. His approach was to be hands on in every component and in the process stifled creativity, spontaneity and ownership of processes. He was the means and the end. Consequently, he starved himself time to coordinate, to set timelines and demand results…
Realising that the project was failing, the head of LAPCAS decided to transfer Land registration exercise to individual Land Boards Secretaries. The role of a national coordinator was removed such that the exercise runs without a pivotal person to provide direction, support and much needed supervision,”states media reports
