THE Basotho Action Party (BAP) has expressed dissatisfaction and warned of potential risks over the government’s plan to grant amnesty to persons and or members of the political class who may have committed economic offences in the previous government.

To the BAP, this is a worrisome omen and could be a shocking plot engineered with the purpose of obstructing justice and absolving criminal elements from possible and actual prosecution.

“Without a doubt, for this matter to be declared a programme of government, it must have consciously been deliberated at length during the political bargaining to arrange a coalition government and to stipulate its business. If the government shall proceed stubbornly and unfortunately succeeds with the corruption amnesty policy, that would be a glaring infraction against our Constitution and unwarranted deviation from acceptable international norms of responsible and accountable governments,” the BAP said in a detailed statement released on Tuesday.

During his inauguration last week Friday, Prime Minister Sam Matekane revealed as one of his plans to develop, publish and implement a crime control programme in the first 15 days as well as take action on the M6.1 billion indicated in the Auditor General’s queries and make the action public in 15 days.   

The said contradiction and of course an area of concern for the BAP caught the limelight when Matekane outlined the plan to roll out an amnesty programme within the first 30 days in office. 

The declaration comes a few months after Acting Auditor General Monica Besetsa’s announcement of an unexpected shortfall of M6 157 billion from the government purse as of March 31, 2021.

The BAP, has, therefore, warned the government not to operate without a sense of democratic compliance, moral probity and fiscal prudence and as such, with impunity.