23 Mar 2017

Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development, Mr Nonofo Molefhi has asked Parliament to approve his ministry’s 2017/18 budget amounting to P907 million. 

Proposing in Parliament on March 21, Mr Molefhi said the amount included P470.9 million for the recurrent budget and P436.5 million  for the development budget.

Under the recurrent budget, he requested P57.1 million  for the ministry headquarters to be shared by the Engineers Registration Board, Quantity Surveyors Registration Council and Architects’ Registration Council.

The minister said the other budget allocations were P21.9 million  for personal emoluments and P24.2 million  for other charges.

The Department of Building and Engineering Services (DBES) has been allocated P235 million which will undergo transition during the course of the financial year 2017/18.

He said P200.3 million of the total departmental budget is allocated for personal emoluments while P34.7 million is for other charges.

The Department of Housing has been allocated P178.8 million out of which P11.5 million is allocated for personal emoluments and P167.3 million is for other charges.

On the development budget, he said the funds would be used on the rehabilitation and refurbishment of some government buildings and ensuring that citizens had access to affordable housing as well as promoting home ownership through affordable housing schemes.

The Government Building Infrastructure and Related Rehabilitation Services will take the largest share of P262.9 million .

The minister said the second largest share of P152.6 million  goes to the Low Income Housing Programme and the remaining share of P21 million is allocated to the ministry’s computerisation projects.

Meanwhile, Mr Molefhi said the construction of Shakawe Primary Hospital had been awarded at a contract amount of P309.9 million.

He said the project was expected to start this month and be completed by September 2019.

He said the construction of the Forensic Science Laboratory for the Botswana Police Services in Gaborone was awarded in November 2016.

The project, valued at P267.6 million, started in January and is scheduled to be completed in April 2019.

Minister Molefhi said construction of Mmathubudukwane Police Station and staff housing also started in January and will be completed in January 2019.

He said the project was awarded at P161.6 million.

The tender for construction of Semolale Police Station was awarded on February 17 at a tender amount of P88.9 million .

The minister said both projects would commence as soon as all contractual formalities such as submission of performance and security bonds by the contractor, as well as contract signing are concluded.

He said the ministry was also implementing building infrastructure projects under the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) for other ministries.

These, among others, include Phase I programme which is the housing development for the Ministry of Health and Wellness, and Phase II which includes clinics and associated housing developments which are being fast-trecked.

He said contract awards for ESP projects had started in earnest, especially for health and wellness ministry staff houses, which constitute the largest share of the programme.

The minister said a total of 113 houses out of 169 had been awarded.

Regarding the construction of clinics and associated housing developments, he said a decision had been taken to enlist the assistance of Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) for the delivery of some of these facilities rather than to completely rely on DBES to engage private consultants as their processes sometimes experienced delays. ENDS