15 Sep 2016

North West councillors have been informed that the Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture (MYSC) has suspended new proposals for Youth Development Fund (YDF) due to some irregularities in  the programme implementation.

Permanent secretary in MYSC, Mr Kago Ramokate explained that the audit exercise was being conducted as they realised that some procedures had not been followed to the letter during the assessment of some applications.

For Maun Administrative Authority (MAA), he said they had funded more projects than expected. 

He explained that MAA was allocated P5 million and they had exceeded the budget, hence the decision to suspend new proposals to avoid over expenditure.

Mr Ramokate said currently they had funded 62 projects worth P5.7 million for 2015/16 financial year and yet they had realised that 170 projects worth over P12 million were in hand.

“That raised eyebrows. Our investigations had indicated that something was not done right. We had engaged experts to conduct the audit and the report would assist us to take informed decisions,” he added.

Though, he appreciated the high uptake of the programme, he said the budget was not enough and that procedures must be followed. 

If the audit could reveal maladministration or corruption practices, Mr Ramokate said they would engage relevant authorities to handle the issue and proper actions would be taken.

He noted that 290 applications were approved in the district; of which 193 were from MAA, while 97 were from Okavango district.

Each constituency, he said was allocated P2million, while MAA budget was P5million, including Ngami constituency. 

 However, the suspension of new proposals and the delay to assist the applications in hand did not go down well with some councillors as they accused the ministry for failing the youth. 

They said the relevant office has to take the blame and answer for their mistakes not to punish youths.

Cllr Abel Molelo said youth officers in Maun was not wrong to had assessed and approved the applications as they followed the guidelines. 

He urged the ministry to find ways of attending to submitted applications saying the youths had done all required of them.

Cllr Grace Moleta shared same sentiments noting that the ministry had used the political wing to drive government programmes and when things go wrong they do not consult them to appreciate the mistake.

Cllr Ntlogelang Kebonyekgotla said the district was poverty stricken saying adding that suspending submission of proposals was  cruel act as they were denying the young people to benefit from the programme and the process  improve their living standards.

He said their district was rich in natural resources and wished the ministry could assist youths to venture into tourism projects which would eventually create employment for others. ENDS