No enquiry into Isaac Kgosi’s missing docket
- DPP, DCEC officers suggest Masisi is aware of the docket’s whereabouts
- Contradicts himself
- DPP director admits that they have not been summoned by anybody to account
- Botswana Police say Attorney general has not reported a missing docket
TEFO PHEAGE
Amid the shocking lack of accountability and finger pointing between the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), over the missing corruption docket of former director of Intelligence Services, Isaac Kgosi, the Botswana Police has revealed that the accounting authority- the Attorney General has not reported the missing docket-IF/2011/01166 .
It is not only the Attorney General who is seeking to distance his office from the incident, the Director of DPP, Stephen Tiroyakgosi told this publication yesterday during an interview that since the allegations arose that the docket had gone missing, the DPP’s office has not been called upon to account for its whereabouts, “ the DPP have not been summoned by anybody, institution or senior government official to account or answer.”
Tiroyakgosi says the docket is with the DCEC while the DCEC director, Bruno Paledi refutes the allegations and insists that the DPP has the docket.
Interestingly, in an interview with Weekend Post on Friday Tiroyakgosi was quoted admitting that the docket has always been at his office but three days later he told the Botswana Gazette that since the docket has been reported missing his office has not been called to account.
The Gaborone based lawyer who rose to stardom while at DPP, Kgosiitsile Ngakagae says the Attorney General is the DPP’s administrative supervisor constitutionally and must account. The Attorney General told this publication that the DPP is an independent body. In court pleadings against The Botswana Gazette in 2015 however, the Attorney General argued that the DPP was an extension of itself and was not constitutionally independent.
President Mokgweetsi Masisi has brushed off questions regarding the allegations surrounding the missing Isaac Kgosi docket as just another case, saying he doesn’t know anything about the docket or case as the DPP director does not report to him.
Insiders within the DPP have revealed to this publication that the new leadership at the helm of the DPP and DCEC are clueless as to the whereabouts of the docket and ought to admit as much. “The President, Mokgweetsi Masisi knows about the docket and its whereabouts. Why do you think he is silent and not bothered? All the docket drama happened when he was still the vice president. Under normal circumstances the DCEC and DPP would have long been called to account,” revealed a senior attorney at the DPP who preferred anonymity.
This week the Botswana Police Commissioner, Keabetswe Makgophe and his Public Relations Officer Near Bagali told this publication that no report has been filed with the BPS from either the Attorney General, DPP or DCEC over the missing docket.
Ngakaagae however argues that an original docket and copies cannot go missing in two different places under custody of different people. “Batswana deserve an explanation on this. So far, we are just witnessing grown up men playing marbles. Sadly, over a national interest matter. Just so you know, these dockets are not analysed by the topmost DPP management. They are assigned to senior prosecutors at management level who advise the DPP on evidential sufficiency.”
The former prosecutor says that prosecutors at DPP and DCEC must disclose how the docket was remitted to the DPP’s office and what recommendations were made. He adds that they are in a position to reveal a lot to the police in respect of the movement of sensitive files from one law enforcement agency to another. “And of course, it only makes sense that the DPP and the DCEC Director must be interdicted while investigations continue, and an effort is made to find who the docket thief is,” he advises.
As a rule of practice, if not policy, Ngakaagae reveals that the DCEC retain the original docket into allegations of a crime. “They don’t hand same over to the prosecution until the date of trial. The floating, or working docket is hardly ever the original docket. At trial, the docket is still in the safe custody of the Investigating Officer. Evidential analysis is made on a working copy. So, when prosecutors talk about returning a docket, they are almost invariably talking about returning a copy,” he said.
He continued: “I am not aware of a single case in my prosecution career where the DCEC sent a file to the DPP and retained no copy or sent the originals together with copies. The practice of sending original dockets to the DPP stopped years before I left that institution.”
Ngakaagae agrees with former Director Rose Seretse saying she is right when she says dockets move between these offices under cover of a savingram. “It should therefore be easy to map their course and to determine their final resting place,” he said while noting that the DCEC Director, in particular must explain what happened as it is in the public interest.
To Masisi, Ngakaagae says, as a rule, there are quarterly reports by the DPP made to the President on cases of national interest. “I have personally been a part of their preparation. They touch on all cases of national interest. There is no way the case of the former DIS Director would not have been on the list. Yes, Section 51 says the DPP does not report to the President. Briefings are, however, in fact made, and the fact that a criminal investigation docket has gone missing is clearly a matter of national and public interest that ought to be of concern to the president.”
The process, he adds, is not in breach of the Constitution. “It is just a heads up in order to keep the leadership informed. Somewhere, in these reports, it would have arisen that the docket which is not only about Isaac Kgosi, but also about DISS expenditure, normally secret, had gone missing,” emphasised Ngakaagae.