24 Feb 2016

In order to improve the provision of services to the public, the government has embarked on a number of initiatives, among them public finance management reforms geared at smoothing service delivery.

The Minister of Finance and Development, Mr Kenneth Matambo said this when presenting the consolidated and development funds estimates for the 2016/17 financial year, before the parliamentary committee of supply at the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Mr Matambo said progress was already visible with tangible results evident as a result of the reforms. “Public finance management reforms continue to be undertaken across the public sector and visible progress is evident in some areas including the key areas of budgeting, accounting and reporting.  In this regard, the medium-term fiscal framework was successfully installed to provide a set of medium-term macro-economic fiscal targets and projections,” Mr Matambo said.

The minister further added that the budgeting horizon had been extended to three years, with two indicative years added to the statutory one year of budgeting.

“This improves the budget process as it gives a perspective of more than one year. The medium-term framework is expected to increase certainty in public spending and improve prioritisation of the budget,” he said.
 

Mr Matambo noted that for the first time in August 2015, medium-term budget ceilings were produced and used to guide ministries and departments to determine their mid-term expenditure requirements.

He further said in order to improve the quality of service delivery at revenue offices, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDF) has established positions of treasury managers at some revenue branches.

The finance minister cited shortage of office accommodation and staff housing at revenue offices as a challenge. To address the situation, he said the ministry was constructing offices with staff houses at Shakawe, Machaneng, Charleshill and Hukuntsi.

In addition, he said six staff houses have been purchased at Palapye from Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) and that additional 17 house were being purchased for the Jwaneng revenue office.

He said a major challenge with regard to implementation of the ministry’s projects has been delayed implementation, mainly due to capacity constraints in the Department of Architecture and Building Services (DBES).
Minister Matambo also presented a proposed budget allocation of over P878 million for approval by Parliament, with the recurrent budget amounting to over P759 million or 86 per cent, and the development budget amounting to over P119 million or 14 per cent.

He said this presents a 19 per cent decline from the revised 2015/16 budget owing to the transfer of the Public Enterprise Evaluation and Privatisation Agency (PEEPA)’s budget to the Office of the President and the exclusion of non-recurring expenditure such as the provision for Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme.

Mr Matambo outlined that P496 million or 65 per cent of the recurrent budget would be allocated to the ministry headquarters’ Department of Corporate Services. He requested approval of P244.5 million or 32 per cent of the recurrent budget for the Office of the Accountant General as well as over P18.5 million or three per cent of the recurrent budget for the Financial Intelligence Agency.

Furthermore, Mr Matambo requested approval of a development budget outline of P19.5 million for MFDP computerisation, over P45.6 million for ministry consultancies and research as well as P54 million for facilities.

He also said public enterprises under the ambit of his ministry, Statistics Botswana (SB), Public Procurement and Asset Disposable Board (PPADB), Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA), Non-Bank Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA), Botswana Accountancy Oversight Authority (BAOA), the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) and the Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) required an amount of over P246 million to assist in their operations. Ends