24 Mar 2014

Minister of Infrastructure, Science and Technology (MIST) Mr Johnie Swartz has asked Parliament to approve his ministry’s total budget of P917.4million for the financial year 2014/15.

He said the P494.4 million was for the recurrent budget and P423million was for the development budget.

Minister Swartz said P423 million allocated for the development budget would be used for rehabilitation of government buildings, construction of the Science and Technology Park as well as Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) initiatives for the development of innovation and technology support programmes.

The money would also be used for construction of a permanent structure for temporary storage facility for disused radiation resources, and establishment of a Centre for Material Science at Botswana Institute for Research, Technology and Innovation (BITRI), he said.

The minister said the largest share of this budget of P213million or 50 per cent of the development budget would finance government building infrastructure and related services rehabilitation.

The second largest share of P150 milllion had been allocated to the BIH to enhance innovation capacity and create job opportunities.

He told Parliament that the remaining share of P60 million or 15 per cent had been allocated to Atomic Energy Usage and Radiation Protection, Retooling of Research Institutions, Research, Science and Technology, fleet expansion and MIST computerisation projects.

Under the recurrent budget, ministry headquarters would get P99.4million, and out of this amount, BITRI would get P38million, BIH P26million while P15.3million would go to personal emoluments and P19million would be spared for other charges, said the minister.

Minister Swartz said BITRI is expected to conduct needs based research and development in focused areas on national interest.

He said efforts were underway to progress BITRI operational matters in respect of putting in place key organisational policies, procedures and logistical support services.

Furthermore, he proposed a budget of P377.8million for the Department of Building and Engineering Services (DBES). The money, he said would be used for recurrent maintenance services which has been centralised to the ministry for maintenance of government facilities.

He said the amount would be distributed across ministries to undertake their minor maintenance directly and that the Ministry of Health was not included as they budgeted for their maintenance directly. Mr Swartz also proposed P6.4million for the Department of Research, Science and Technology.

Under this budget, the ministry would develop an operational manual for the Botswana Research Fund under the Economic Diversification and Competitiveness (EDC) Agenda.

The development of the National Research Fund falls within EDC pillar for promoting skills development innovation. “These are critical steps in providing a conducive environment for creative local research and innovation,” he said.

The Department of Radiation and Inspectorate would get P10.6million of which P6.4 would be allocated to personal emoluments and P4.2million for other charges. Ends