13 Apr 2016

The Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP), Mr Carter Morupisi has implored civil servants to spearhead the implementation of the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP).

He said ESP was aimed at starting most projects which were deferred during the past global economic meltdown.

Addressing civil servants at Francistown Civic Centre on Tuesday April 12, Mr Morupisi explained that the programme was geared towards stimulating and diversifying the economy, which would in the long run result in accelerated job creation and sustainable economic growth.

He highlighted that the programme was a bold blueprint for the urgent delivery of national priorities in keeping with the government’s commitment to the nation  to achieve accelerated job creation with improvements in the well-being of all Batswana.

Mr Morupisi explained that the ESP programme would be mainly driven by the private sector, noting that civil servants as policy implementers on the ground were key stakeholders to coordinate how best the private sector could implement such projects.

He urged procuring officers to support both macro and micro citizen entrepreneurs by sourcing materials from local producers and suppliers to boost locally owned business entities.

Moreover, he said the success of the ESP lay with good working relationships between civil service and the district authority, and that it was crucial that the civil service had a common ground with the local authority on project monitoring.

Speaking about the targeted sectors, Mr Morupisi said agricultural production, tourism development, Economic Diversification Drive, manufacturing, buildings and road construction and maintenance, re-skilling of youth and the establishment of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were the targeted sectors.

He indicated that this intervention was not only for government but it would also require the participation of everyone and most importantly the private sector.

Mr Morupisi said government wanted the effects of ESP to be felt by everyone and not only those in cities and the local economy should be the biggest recipient of this, adding that local products and services should be given priority so that the benefits were spread out so that the majority of the people benefited.

For her part, the director general of the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), Ms Rose Seretse pleaded with the civil service to be on the look-out and refrain from corruption during the awarding and implementation of ESP projects.

She challenged the civil service to exercise due diligence when awarding tenders and to certify that all Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB)  requirements had been complied with during the tender awarding process. ENDS