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According to the story, the Bank Governor had differences with the Internal Auditor on what should be part of the report toparliament. The auditor, Mutwale is reported as having stated that, "Management had reported to parliament figures that did not agree with the underlying records of the bank. I consider[ed] this as a deliberate misrepresentation by management.

" The newspaper used official correspondences in 2007 among the Governor Linah Mohohlo, Chief Internal Auditor Joe Mutwale and Gordon Cunliffe, the Bank's Audit Committee Chairman. According to the newspaper article, 'confidential notes' within the bank management shows that Parliament was misled because the Bank’s management" did not agree with the underlying records of the Bank."

Speaking to MISA Botswana, Bank of Botswana Public Relations Officer, Chepete Chepete, said they are still preparing aformal response and lamented that the paper rushed the story before they could respond. MISA Botswana views this as supporting the call for a Freedom of Information law, which would give society the right to access information thatn affect the governance of the country.

As this case demonstrates, government business is closed even to legislative bodies as Parliament. As it appears, without an access to information law, such bodies as BoB do not find themselves obliged to release vital information to the public

Rashweat Mukundu
Programme Specialist: Media Freedom Monitoring
MISA Regional Secretariat
21 Johann Albrecht Street
Private Bag 13386
Windhoek, Namibia
Tel: + 264 61 232 975
Fax:+264 61 248016
Mobile: 00 264 813 675 362
E mail rashweat@misa.org, misaalerts@gmail.com

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