26 Feb 2019

Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration’s Minister Nonofo Molefhi on February 25 presented, to Parliament, the budget proposals for the 2019/20 financial year amounting to over P190 million.

Mr Molefhi said the total budget estimates comprised P166.2 million for recurrent budget and P24.5 million for development budget.

He noted that the recurrent budget of P166 million for the coming financial year represented an increase of more than P12.9 million over the 2018/19 financial year budget, which stood at P153.2 million.

The minister indicated that the largest proportion of the recurrent budget was allocated to personnel emoluments at 43 per cent, amounting to P72.1 million while the second largest allocation of P18.6 million or 11 per cent of the budget would go towards pensions and gratuities for MPs and constituency officers following the impending dissolution of Parliament later this year.

Mr Molefhi explained that the remaining 46 per cent or P75.4 million would cater for other operational costs of Parliament.

Moreover, the minister stated that overall the larger share of the proposed budget of P157 million or 94.5 per cent was allocated to the National Assembly while the remaining P9.1 million or 5.5 per cent was for Ntlo ya Dikgosi.

Regarding the P24.5 million development budget, he said out of the amount P8 million was needed for Phase 2 of the project on security upgrades at Parliament.

“The first phase of the project included procurement and fitting of security cameras at the main Parliament buildings and surroundings. 

The second phase entails procurement, replacement and fitting of security cameras at Parliament Annexes 1 and 2,” he clarified.

Further, he said P10 million was being requested to continue with the refurbishment and restoration of Parliament buildings, while P500 000 would be for the completion of the recording facility at the main committee room.

The minister added that P6 million was required for the roll-out of the Botswana Speaks project to the remaining 30 constituencies.

Earlier when giving a background of the performance of Parliament during the current financial year, Mr Molefhi expressed satisfaction that of the 40 bills tabled for consideration by the National Assembly, 35 had been passed into law.

Of the key pieces of legislation that had been passed into law, he cited the Matimela Bill, the Arms and Ammunition Bill, the Cybercrime and Computer Related Crimes Bill, the Anti-Human Trafficking Amendment Bill and the Data Protection Bill.

“The passing of these bills by Parliament was premised on the need to strengthen penalties, remove obsolete provisions, modernise and update certain Acts, and to respond to current challenges of terrorism, human trafficking and climate change,” he stated.

As for Ntlo ya Dikgosi, Mr Molefhi observed that a number of capacity building workshops were held for members of the house with the view to enhance its advisory role.

He said during the workshops, members of Ntlo ya Dikgosi were trained on leadership, risk management, emotional intelligence and corporate governance.

On Parliament’s oversight role, the minister said several parliamentary committees had, during the current financial year, undertaken various oversight activities in line with their portfolio mandates, saying such activities had brought to the public domain issues pertaining to, among others, the National Petroleum Fund, the Botswana Public Officers Pensions Fund and the Botswana Tourism Organisation.

Regarding participatory democracy, Mr Molefhi noted that in order to enhance this, Parliament had started broadcasting live, the responses of the Leader of Opposition and the Leader of the Minority Opposition as had been demonstrated during the past State of the Nation Address and the budget speech.

Further, he said Parliament had developed a public outreach strategy and a petition framework, which he said were yet to be tabled for adoption.

He also spoke of the Botswana Speaks project, indicating that it aimed to get Batswana involved in policy development and decision-making of the country by harnessing ICT-based techniques for citizens to be better connected with their elected representatives.

On inter-parliamentary conferences and seminars, he said during 2018/19 financial year, the National Assembly had hosted three inter-parliamentary conferences being the Annual Conference of the Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Eastern and Southern Africa, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association as well as the Senior Parliament Staff Seminar. ENDS