25 Feb 2018

Late payment for participants of constituency competitors has been attributed to several factors, among them the unreliability of the Government Accounting Budget System (GABS) that facilitates payment of suppliers online.

Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Thapelo Olopeng told Parliament that in many occasions the system had been unreliable across the country, thus creating a delay in the disbursement of prize money to beneficiaries and participants.

“From our interactions with the participants, we have noticed that some of the participates deliberately delay to submit surety forms or other documentation to allow for speedy payment under the pretext that they want to let the money accumulate and claim it as a lump sum,” he said.

In addition, Mr Olopeng said some groups changed treasurers during the course of the competitions, and that it caused delays in that the payment process had to start all over again.

He said in some instances, youth offices had communication challenges with treasurers, causing further delays.

The minister further acknowledged that his ministry made budget provisions for the competitions on an annual basis.

Mr Olopeng said the late payment of prize money to participants of constituency competitions was a concern to the ministry, adding that an effort to improve efficiency was under review by the ministry, adding that further assessments would be made in the next financial year to improve the process.

He said the ministry encouraged teams or participants to submit documentation timeously to enable smooth processing of payments.
 

Francistown South MP, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi had asked the minister why it took long for participants of constituency competitions to be paid, and whether the ministry did not have a budget for such events and when the problem would likely be solved given that it happened every year. Ends