19 Feb 2019

 Mochudi West MP, Mr Gilbert Mangole has called on government to consider ensuring that participatory democracy prevailed in the country.

Contributing to the ongoing debate on the proposed budget allocations for the next financial year on Monday, Mr Mangole pointed out that of the steps that could be taken to ensure that participatory democracy existed in Botswana was the televising of Parliament proceedings.

He noted that the live broadcasting of Parliament, which government had promised would be undertaken, was an important aspect that could help enhance the country’s democracy.

Furthermore, the legislator repeated the call for political party funding, saying it too could help enrich the country’s democracy.

Mr Mangole said the current situation where aspirants of political office were self-funded, negatively impacted on the outcome of elections as some of the hopefuls failed to adequately contest for political office.

On another issue, Mr Mangole said the budget showed that there was no equitable distribution of resources, as there were no developments contained in it that had been earmarked for the Kgatleng area.

Regarding the public service, the lawmaker said there was need for a complete overhaul of public officers’ salaries and conditions of service.

He said the recent increments were not enough, and that what was necessary was a comprehensive review of the public service.

In his comments, MP for Mahalapye West, Mr Joseph Molefhe cautioned against wastage of public funds by government ministries and departments through the procurement of goods which ended up not being utilised.

Calling for the prudent use of resources, Mr Molefhe said it was also necessary to ensure that there was value for money in every project that was undertaken.

He said proper and effective implementation of projects should be at the core. 

He appealed for those responsible to prevent unnecessary delays so that there were no cost overruns.

The MP also urged government to capacitate anti-corruption agencies so that they could be effective in discharging their respective mandates.

On allocations to ministries, he decried the allocations for the Ministries of Investment, Trade and Industry and Agricultural Development and Food Security, saying they were too little to allow the ministries to deliver on their core mandates.

On the latter, he said it was sad that the food security aspect was not mentioned in the budget proposals, an omission that he said meant that Botswana would have a challenge attaining food security. ENDS