26 Feb 2019

Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Nonofo Molefhi has proposed over P1.5 billion as well as over P700 million for the ministry’s recurrent and development budget for 2019/2020 financial year respectively.

Presenting the ministry’s 2019/2020 recurrent and development budget proposals, Mr Molefhi stated that the proposals for the coming years were aligned to the strategic focus of the National Development Plan 11, which, among others, promotes growth and economic diversification.

Minister Molefhi highlighted that the over P1.5 billion proposition under the recurrent budget showed an increase of P116 million or 8.3 per cent over last year’s budget.

 The increase, he said, was attributed mainly to the transfer of the National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA from the Ministry of Health and Wellness and an increase in the salaries and allowances as well as in travel votes for the departments of information and broadcasting services, Directorate of Intelligence Security Services and Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime.

He added that there had also been an increase in postal and service charges and in radio and transmitter equipment.

Minister Molefhi stated that there was a slight increase of 9.4 per cent under the development budget, noting that the DISS was allocated the bulk of the development budget at P251 million, which represents 33.9 per cent of the budget.

Poverty Eradication programme allocation stands at P201 million or 27.26 per cent while HIV/AIDS programmes got the third largest share with a budget proposal of P90 million, which translates to 12.27 per cent of the budget.

 The remaining 27.56 per cent of the budget, he said, would be shared by Broadcasting, MOPAGPA consultancies and infrastructure, computerisation, fleet expansion, DPSM and DCEC.

 He stated that a total of P40 million was being requested for various broadcasting activities such as upgrading of the studios, acquisition of various equipment and content in order to facilitate the full migration from analog to digital broadcasting.

NACA will be allocated P90 million for epidemiology research and surveillance, President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief and Global fund.

The ministry’s infrastructure development covers the refurbishment of Orapa House as well as the refurbishment of State House II.

Reacting to the presentation, Letlhakeng-Lephephe legislator, Mr Liakat Kablay called for stringent monitoring of poverty eradication projects to guarantee their sustainability.

Mr Kablay pleaded with government to ensure that poverty eradication beneficiaries were well mentored.

He highlighted that a lot of beneficiaries were illiterate, therefore needed intense mentorship on how best they could operate their projects in the best possible way to sustain themselves.

He said it had surfaced that there was lack of commitment from some beneficiaries, which had resulted in the collapse of projects, hence more emphasis should be placed on project monitoring.

As government policy implementers, he said government officials needed to encourage poverty eradication beneficiaries to refrain from neglecting their projects, as doing so defeats government’s efforts to empower the communities.

Government, he said, was committed to eradicating poverty, hence it was equally important for beneficiaries to invest their attention towards the success of their projects.

MP for Shoshong, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele applauded government for remaining steadfast in its goal of eradicating abject poverty among Batswana, but raised a concern on the implementation of such programmes, saying that the projects had proven viable if well managed and monitored.

He attributed the poor implementation of projects to shortage of public officers and resources in his constituency, a thing which he said needed to be addressed to remedy the high poverty rate in his constituency.

MP for Mogoditshane, Mr Sedirwa Kgoroba pleaded with government to hold accounting officers in the Poverty Eradication programme accountable as it was evident enough that the programme had yielded little results despite huge amount of money invested on the beneficiaries. ENDS