06 Mar 2013

The Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Nonofo Molefhi has requested Parliament to approve P3,794,122,850 as budget proposals to provide and facilitate the delivery of transport communications infrastructure and services in the 2013/14 financial year.

Presenting the request in Parliament on March 5, the minister said P1, 948 237 850 would be for the recurrent expenditure and P1, 845, 885,000 would go to the development budget.

On the recurrent budget estimates, Minister Molefhi explained that the largest share would be allocated to the Central Transport Organisation with an amount of P709 278 770 followed by the Department of Roads with P556 563 500.

The Department of Information and Technology, he mentioned, would get P403 766 560. Also, he explained that the balance of P278 629 020 would be shared by headquarters, Telecommunications and Postal Services, Road Transport and Safety and Information Technology.

On the development budget, Minister Molefhi highlighted that the requested funds would be used for implementation of on-going projects. The largest share of the ministry’s development budget, which is P843.5 million would be allocated to roads projects.

Major projects to benefit from these resources, the minister said, included the Nata/Kazungula road which was expected to be completed in March 2013, Tonota/Francistown road that started in October 2012, Charles Hill/Ncojane road, the BIT project as well as the Kazungula and Thamalakane bridges.

Minister Molefhi also stated that the second largest share of the development budget, which was P635.5 million would be allocated to the air transport infrastructure programme, which included terminal buildings and air traffic control towers at the Maun and Kasane airports, procurement of equipment and systems upgrade to improve security and safety in the aviation sector as well as continuation of the SSKIA terminal building after termination of the initial contract.

In addition, he observed that the third largest share of P274 million would go towards the development of ICT programmes such as the e-government project and the GDN III project.

He highlighted that P40 million would be spent on the International Connectivity project as well as the conclusion of the Nteletsa II project, with the remaining P52 885 000 to be used to implement various projects under consultancies, facilities, computerisation, transport control and road safety programmes. ENDS