Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) have pledged to mount pressure on government to reveal how billions that were contributed to the Covid-19 fund were used.
MPs said they will use the winter session of Parliament to demand answers, saying that government has failed to account for over P2 billion that was contributed by the private sector.
MP for Palapye Onneetse Ramogapi said since the outbreak of the virus last year, the BDP led government has not been transparent, saying that there has been a series of tenders awarded from the Office of the President through direct appointment.
“We have always appealed that whichever tender that is being awarded, it should be made clear in terms of how much that tender costed and to reveal the kind of tender awarded for public consumption. It should be put out in the public domain with all information to reveal all companies that were involved in the bid for those tenders,” said Ramogapi.
Ramogapi said information has been readily provided by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime, adding that recently, the corruption buster revealed at the governance and oversight committee that there were irregularities in the awarding of tenders.
He stressed that opposition MPs made a series of calls in the parliamentary session to government to be transparent but to no avail.
“Ever since the State of Emergency, there have been corrupt activities. Theirs is now a legal corruption because they have made laws that are favourable to their penchant for corruption. We will not give up irrespective of our minority numbers because at the end of the day, people want answers, in fact we are also prepared to question the legitimacy of funds that were recently borrowed by government because the law dictates that whenever there is need to acquire a loan, it has go through parliament,” added Ramogapi.
For his part, Member of Parliament for Gantsi North Motsamai Motsamai said opposition MPs will not give up in their pursuit for justice, saying that billions of pulas have been squandered without accountability.
“We are still going to turn up the heat and demand accountability because the way things are being done in the country is quite strange, people have lost their jobs yet we have government that is failing to account,” said Motsamai.
On the other hand, MP for Serowe South, Leepetswe Lesedi, said in the previous session, opposition tabled a motion calling for the establishment of commission of enquiry but the motion was defeated.
“To be honest, government should put an eye into procurement process and it should be upon them as well to prove beyond reasonable doubt that finances are not being misused. We are even failing to test people moving across zones, so that shows how government is failing to contain the virus,” said Lesedi.
The Serowe South legislator indicated that in the next parliament session, opposition will table a series of motions demanding answers.
Last year, Leader of opposition in Parliament in Parliament Dumelang Saleshando was suspended from participating in the National Assembly for a week, following a vote by Members of Parliament subsequent to a ruling by the Speaker of Parliament, Phandu Skelemani.
Skelemani had told the house that he was not satisfied with the evidence Saleshando had presented before him to substantiate allegations of corrupt practice in the process of the awarding of government tenders and urged the LOO to withdraw the claims.
Saleshando, who is also Maun West MP refused to withdraw the corruption claims, and the following week his attempts to lodge fresh evidence derived from an internet search and newspaper articles were further rebuffed by the Speaker who questioned the legitimacy of such sources.
