05 Jun 2016

 Permanent Secretary to the President Mr Carter Morupisi has implored public servants to spearhead Economic Stimulus Progromme (ESP) and ensure projects that were shelved take off.

Mr Morupisi was officially addressing public servants on ESP at Mabutsane on Thursday. He said the progroamme would create jobs to improve the general livelihoods of Batswana.

In addition he said public servants should be responsible for close monitoring of projects so that they were completed on time and within budget. He said the programme would deliver more houses to the public.

He said it was important that public servants understood the economic outlook of this country, adding that the country was hit by the global economic meltdown.

Mr Morupisi said during procurement of goods, citizen owned companies should be given priority to ensure success of ESP and citizen empowerment.

He complaied that somelocal  companies that hiked prizes when government bought from them and appealed to them to charge reasonable and affordable prizes.

Mr Morupisi indicated that public servants should mobilise the private sector mostly Batswana companies to grow their businesses through ESP. He said the country had been depending heavily on diamond sales to sustain the economy.

He said the country came up with ESP initiative to diversify the economy through agriculture, tourism which would create more jobs for Batswana.

He said due to shortage of water because of unreliable rainfall, the government intended to recycle water for drinking and watering crops.

Teachers told the meeting that they were experiencing shortage of accommodation, adding that married teachers were made to share a house  with those who are single. They complained that there were some asbestos houses that posed a health hazard to them.

They also complained about science laboratories in secondary schools which are running short of equipment while some are dilapidated, requesting such to be considered in the programme. ENDS