26 May 2016

 

Secretary for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Ms Kebonye Moepeng said the ministry has performed relatively well with regards to budget allocated to it for the year under review.

Submitting before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Wednesday, Ms Moepeng said in terms of expenditure and revenue collection, the ministry had done well.

She however noted challenges with regard to inadequate spending of some of the budget because procurement took time in some instances. Other challenges, she said were ensuring timeous remittance of money that people owed to government.

“I believe there is improvement from last year because most of the issues that were raised in the last report have been resolved,’ she said.

She said the ministry had also performed well with regards to the coordination of National Development Plan 11 (NDP 11) whereby the ministry has been tasked to facilitate the four Thematic Working Groups (TWGs) working on the chapters of NDP 11.

She also briefed the committee that TWGs were finalising the chapters of NDP 11 and that progress had been shown during the last stakeholder conference on NDP 11.

Ms Moepeng also noted that she was happy with the ministry’s performance on its mandate of guiding Botswana towards realisation of sustainable development goals and government’s business in general.

She said the public continued  to receive information timeously through state media being Btv, Radio Botswana, Dailynews and BW facebook.

She also said the National Strategy Office had been set up as a monitoring tool that assisted government to monitor and manage performance.

She said NSO was currently working on a national monitoring framework and that significant progress had been made with regards to the tool that was being developed together with different ministries.

Ms Moepeng said Public Enterprise Evaluation and Privatisation Agency (PEEPA) had been transferred to Office of President (OP) and that OP was rightly placed to work with, advice and guide PEEPA.

“PEEPA is responsible for supervising the parastatals and we believe that we are rightly placed to ensure efficient and effective facilitation of privatisation,” she said.

Ms Moepeng was responding to PAC member, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe who wanted to know why PEEPA was transferred to OP. He also wanted to know the framework of Presidential Task Team on Vision 2036 and also wanted to know if it was true that OP played a part in the postponement of NDP 11.

Ms Moepeng told PAC that Presidential Task Team had been appointed to work on Vision 2036 and that they had not finished their assignment. She said upon completion of assignment, they would know what the vision framework entailed.

With regard to postponement of NDP 11, she said she was unable to respond as to whether the ministry played a role, but noted that the ministry was part and parcel of the process.

Ms Moepeng also said the Presidential Inspectorate Task Team played  advisory role to the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) and that the team was appointed by the President with unstipulated duration of office.

She said the team got sitting allowances and not salaries and they were allowed to use official vehicles when they met and were not provided with permanent accommodation.

PAC member, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse had asked about the duration of office of the task team, and whether they were volunteering or salaried. ENDS