11 Mar 2018

Auditor General’s budget proposal for the 2018/19 financial year amounting to P80 720 080 has been approved.

Presenting the budget to Parliament on Thursday, Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Thato Kwerepe said the whole budget was made up of the recurrent expenditure estimates, which was an increase of 30 per cent from the current financial year.

He said P49 390 940 from the budget had been allocated to staff salaries and allowances while internal travelling and transport received P7 035 450 and external travelling and transport got P3.8 million. 

He added that the remaining funds would be spent on general expenses, office rental, training of staff, and vehicles replacement. 

The assistant minister told Parliament that the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) had refocused its operations to be more responsive to latest development in the audit environment, which had seen it introduce audit of performance information.

“This type of audit seeks to establish the extent to which ministries and departments deliver on their plans and by extension their mandates,” said Mr Kwerepe, adding that its coverage was however still limited. 

He further said after completion of a manpower rationalisation exercise last year, the Auditor General decided to create 42 additional posts during this financial year. 

He said the positions would facilitate the expansion of performance and information technology audit functions and the establishment of forensic and environmental audit units.

Mr Kwerepe said the challenge of limited resources had resulted in the Auditor General being unable to audit some key institutions in Botswana and in some foreign missions abroad. 

MP for Gaborone Bonnington South, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe said the Office of Auditor General should be sufficiently funded because it ensures the accountability of the entire government system.

He expressed concern that government was under-investing and under-funding the OAG. 

Mr Gaolathe further said there were some legislative constraints to the full functioning of this office. He said this could endanger democracy.

“Ordinarily there are three functions of the office. The first is the audit function, which is the traditional function and which is the focus of the Auditor General in Botswana. 

In fact there are two other functions, there is the evaluation function, which is the assignment to actually evaluate whether monies in our system are used properly, efficiently, effectively and whether there is general value for money. This function is under developed and is not taken as seriously as it should because of under-investment,” he said.

Furthermore, he said the investigative function of the Auditor General’s office is not being taken seriously in Botswana. 

He said the office should be legislatively empowered to investigate issues regarding the use of funds from government including government investment accounts, levies, procurement, and pensions.

MP for Kanye South, Mr Abram Kesupile decried the shortage of human resources for the Office of the Auditor General, which had caused delays in auditing of government institutions. 

He said the office should be given sufficient manpower to make it effective, adding that the increase of posts by 42 was not enough.

Palapye legislator, Mr Moiseraele Goya praised the office, saying it had so far done its work effectively in terms of auditing government departments and institutions. 

He also supported the budget proposal and called for the increase of auditors to ensure that the departments and other institutions were audited every year.

MP Wynter Mmolotsi of Francistown South said the current situations needed the Office of Auditor General to be sufficiently financed and skilled to deal with the increasing cases of misappropriation of state funds. 

He said it was disturbing that the Auditor General had not even audited the use of money by the National Petroleum Fund (NPF) as well as the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DISS). 

Tati East legislator, Mr Samson Guma said the Auditor General’s office must be capacitated to effectively carry out its tasks. 

“As we speak today, the so called National Petroleum Fund has not been audited for two years. 

Because of capacity constraints, we have not audited DISS since its inception. 

The Auditor General is under capacitated. They need to be given more resources,” the legislator said.

He said money from NPF had been misappropriated because it was not audited. 

“The Auditor General must, as a matter of urgency, audit all the special funds. 

In my view, all the special funds must come within the government accounting system so that there is proper accountability,” the legislator added.

Gabane/Mmankgodi MP, Major General Pius Mokgware said government had purposefully under resourced all oversight institutions to make sure that they were toothless.

 He said they lacked enough personnel and had no offices, yet they were supposed to ensure there was accountability in government system. 

MP for Boteti West, Mr Slumber Tsogwane appreciated changes that the Auditor General had embarked on. 

He said all those changes demanded more funds than they had been budgeted for because they were critical. Ends