19 Dec 2016

The National Assembly on Wednesday (December 14) approved the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Kenneth Matambo’s supplementary estimates of expenditure from the consolidated and development funds.

Members of Parliament unanimously acceded to the supplementary request for approximately P1.3 billion from the consolidated fund, and P2 billion from the development fund.

In making his presentation, Mr Matambo said the supplementary funds would cater for a shortfall that appeared in the financial administration of some government ministries.

“The Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology submitted a supplementary request amounting to P1.3 billion to be funded out of the consolidated fund,” Mr Matambo said.

He explained that of this amount going to that ministry, the Department of Tertiary Education Financing had requested P1.18 billion to address shortfalls under tertiary education financing. A further P119.8 million is required under the Department of Vocational Training to cover a shortfall on the allowances vote for vocational education students, Mr Mathambo said.

“The supplementary requests under the development fund include four on-going projects, namely water planning and development, major villages water supply and development, Botswana Innovation Hub project and Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) finances,” Mr Matambo said.

He said the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services had requested a sum of P690 million to support the national emergency water supply projects they had embarked on.

“The Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security also requires an amount of P1.3 billion to augment the 2016/17 annual budget and total estimated cost of the BPC finances project,” Mr Matambo said.

He said that further funds had been requested for the continuation of the implementation of the Comprehensive Power Development Strategy, which includes the refurbishment of Morupule A power station, the northwest transmission grid connection and tariff support.

For his part, the parliamentary Finance and Estimates Committee chairperson, Mr Ignatius Moswaane said his committee had revised all the finances requested by the various ministries and gave an approval.

Gaborone Bonnington South Member of Parliament, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe said while he agreed with Mr Matambo’s submission, he cautioned against poor financial planning that always left behind gaps that forced supplementary budgets. ENDS