14 Jul 2016

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has signed Shareholder Agreement Performance with its parastatal organisations.

Among the organisations who signed the agreement are Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority, Botswana Fibre Networks and Botswana Railways.

Speaking during  the signing ceremony on Thursday Minister for Transport and Communications, Mr Tshenolo Mabeo said the objective of the compact is to monitor and align the performance of the organisations to the wider Government objectives and the Ministry Strategic Plan. 

He said key strategic deliverables for all of them include consumer service standards, consumer awareness and Stakeholder management, product and service affordability, quality of Services, employment creation and citizen Empowerment, corporate social responsibility, operational Efficiency, financial performance, and employees’ productivity. 

“I am cognisant of the fact that some of our organisations have aligned their Agreements to their organizational strategies, this is quite commendable, what I would like to see going forward is the continual monitoring and evaluation of the business plans such that we will not need to sign the Agreements every year but amend and agree on the business plans on a yearly basis,” he said.  

He said the ministry is currently working with Public Enterprise (PEEPA) to finalise a standardised evaluation tool that will be applied by all parastatals across government to monitor and evaluate performance.  

In addition the minister said this year they are going to sign Shareholder Compacts with Botswana Savings Bank, Botswana Postal Services and Botswana Couriers and Logistics, who are still finalising their strategies.

Mr Mabeo  emphasised the need to improve on service delivery.  up their game on service delivery.

He said they get disappointed when projects do not move or are of low quality and this becomes a cost not only to the government but on the tax payer.

“We ought to be sure that what we do is progressive, cost effect and value for money. It has however come to my attention that some parastatals are belatedly requesting funds for operation, this gives us challenges as we have already started the budgeting process for 2017/2018. So, I urge you to be more timely on your requests,” he said.

He commended Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana for successfully concluding the significant safety concerns (SSCs) in December, 2015, and that Botswana SSCs scored 71 per cent against the World Average of 63 per cent, and attained position three.

“I would also like to acknowledge Botswana Savings Bank Debit Card which will be launched at the end of this month, a project that will significantly improve and empower the ordinary Motswana, making the un - bankable, bankable,” he said. ENDS