Botswana Police Service (BPS) has joined a long list of government departments that have been found to be involved in the abuse and mismanagement of special funds (levies), which are entrusted under their custody. BPS Commissioner Keabetswe Makgophe admitted before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday that they sometimes use funds from the Road Traffic Fines Fund to procure vehicles which are used for general duties by different police units. “Yes, we use the funds to procure even for other police divisions,” he admitted, adding that it is difficult to divide the duties of police officers into separate units as they are often deployed across different divisions, including traffic. The Road Traffic Fines Fund was introduced in 2009 to help the traffic unit of Botswana Police to procure vehicles and equipment to help them to fight road traffic offences. In 2016/17 report the Auditor General identified numerous acts of diversion, abuse and failure to account across Special Funds. Under the Road Traffic Fines Fund, the Auditor General queried the truthfulness of an alleged expenditure amounting to P3.5 million on five Land Rovers to patrol the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve on traffic duty. “In this instance, it is questionable whether…