21 Apr 2016

The Presidential Inspectorate Task team has identified glitches that delay poverty eradication projects in Kweneng District.

Although the team has just been launched, it has already identified challenges relating to policy and guidelines issues and lack of proper project supervision.

This was revealed in a meeting between the inspectorate team, poverty eradication beneficiaries and implementing officers from various departments on Tuesday in Molepolole.

Explaining their mandate, the chairperson of the inspectorate team and former vice president, Dr  Ponatshego Kedikilwe clarified that they were not government employees.

He said they were an eight member team tasked by the President to help monitor poverty eradication projects in order to push the economic diversification drive and create employment opportunities.

He said the government was worried about the rollout and the slow uptake of poverty eradication projects. He said the government has noted with concern that information on poverty eradication reports do not tally with what was actually happening on the ground.

The team will undertake periodic inspections of government programmes and projects.

They will also undertake risk assessment and propose mitigation strategies. Dr Kedikilwe revealed that the team would be divided into three groups to assess projects in different parts of the country.

He advised implementing departments that it was important to report factual information to improve service delivery.

Beneficiaries of various programmes have also cited irregularities in the programmes they have applied for. Most of them have cited underfunding as a major challenge.

Lack of operating space has also been singled out by youth beneficiaries. They said they do not have land to operate their businesses, and as a result, end up paying high rentals.

Procurement processes have also been cited as a challenge in the delivery of materials to beneficiaries.

The social and community development officer in the Molepolole Administrative Authority, Ms Mpho Bogatsu said a high number of beneficiaries in the district have shown interest in agricultural packages such as livestock.

He noted that a lot of backyard garden projects have experienced a high number of failure rates because of water scarcity and high bills incurred by such beneficiaries. He said the department has since opted for cluster gardening.

The team toured youth projects as well as poverty eradication ventures and the Molepolole bus terminus.

The team will return for detailed inspections of various projects in the district. ENDS