01 Mar 2018

Palapye MP, Mr Moiseraele Goya says the Directorate of Intelligence Security Services (DISS) plays a crucial role in the security of Botswana as a developing country.

The legislator therefore said DISS should continue getting sizable funding from state coffers because it helped to protect the country against possible security threats.

Contributing to the debate on the Ministry for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration on Monday, Mr Goya asked people to stop saying DISS was getting a lot of funds unnecessarily.

“It is only that our country has financial challenges, I would have asked for funding for the DIS to be increased because they should lead the way in finding out which things could be possible threats to the country’s security. They should be able to find out those threats and inform other security agents like the police and army. Therefore, they need a lot of money to accomplish their mandate,” he said.

In his budget proposal which was approved by Parliament on Tuesday, Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Eric Molale said DISS was allocated P261 million for its development expenditure which was 39 per cent of the total development budget of the ministry.

He also said DISS was allocated a further amount of over P410 million for its recurrent expenditure which was also the largest share of the ministry’s recurrent budget.

Concerning service delivery, the MP said issues such as shortage of resources hampered civil servants from being effective in their duties.

He said local authorities, police and health services were among institutions hampered by lack of resources.

Gabane/Mmankgodi MP, Major General Pius Mokgware expressed concern about the performance of the civil service.

He said a lot of government projects were not done effectively which showed that there was a problem of performance.

The legislator said it could be because of a breakdown in working relations between employees and the administration.

“Botswana used to have a very good public service. What has gone wrong now? Do we realise that our public service is not as good as it used to be?” he asked.

He also said there was acute shortage of staff and resources in the civil service in rural areas. He said there were over 3 000 posts in the civil service which should be filled.

For his part, Okavango MP, Mr Bagalatia Arone said there should be a good support system for civil servants in rural areas to improve their productivity and morale.

He said the civil service structure in rural areas had completely collapsed.

“There are no support systems. Either you talk of infrastructural developments, you are talking about road linkages, how are we supporting them?” he said.

He further said when implementing the poverty eradication programme, government should ensure that packages were suitable for areas where the beneficiaries were based.

“The programme should be revisited to ensure that packages, as we spread them around the country, we are very sure that they will be able to help the recipients,” he said.

He said the small stock package was not suitable for his constituency because the area was infested by predators including hyenas.  

Specially Elected MP, Ms Bogolo Kenewendo urged the ministry to carry out an impact assessment of the Botswana Public Service College.

“Perhaps we need to review the impact on whether or not it meets the mandate, and that there is proper skills audit there at the college,” she said.

She said government should check whether the college was moving with international and national trends in terms of education and whether it offered the right courses.

She said the college should move towards the improvement of productivity in the civil service.

She added that there should be proper reporting on the implementation of key economic strategies and major projects as well as poverty eradication projects.

She also said there was need for a clear sense of urgency in the implementation of economic strategies especially those handled by the National Strategy Office.ENDS