05 Mar 2020

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Thuso Ramodimoosi says contract management is at the heart of effective service delivery world-wide.

He said in this transformational era, the government was faced with increased pressure to deliver services at reduced costs, yet contract managers in the public service are not equipped with relevant skills to create, execute and analyse contracts to optimise both financial and operational performance as well as reducing financial risk and litigations.

Giving a keynote address at the contract management training launch, Mr Ramodimoosi said there had been a loud, unwavering and persistent public outcry over poor implementation of projects.

He expressed gratitude to the Attorney General, particularly the international and commercial division, for the outstanding collaboration with the Botswana Public Service College (BPSC) in developing the contract management programme, under the theme; Increasing Pressure; Reducing Cost.

He said as far back as 20 years ago, implementation as a problematic area was articulated in NDP 8 (1997-2003) and in reference to project implementation the NDP 10 also asserted the same, stating that where projects are finally delivered, they are usually characterised by cost overruns and questionable quality.

He said again in the 2015/2016 budget speech, the then Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Mr Kenneth Matambo, as well as at least three Heads of State echoed the same concern.

“This ultimately resulted in the establishment of various institutions such as the Government Implementation Coordination (GICO), the National Strategy Office (NSO) and others, with a view to achieve effective policy and project implementation,” he said.

Mr Ramodimoosi said the causes of poor implementation were broad and varied, but it had been established in many quarters that contract management was at the core of such failures and this had manifested in a myriad of disputes and litigations that the government  had to contend with over the years, in the process, haemorrhaging funds, which could have been put to other socio-economic development endeavours.

Mr Ramodimoosi said the BPSC should increase pressure to focus on competencies in contract management; in project management and all other disciplines central to project delivery such as procurement management.

He said the effective management of contracts would lead to the realisation of the Vision 2036 aspiration of transitioning Botswana to a high income economy and as the country intensifies its efforts to become a private sector-led economy.

For his part, the facilitator of the training programme and also the assistant secretary for International and Commercial Services at Attorney General Chambers, Mr Don Ruhukwa said the objective of the training included financial monitoring and control of contracts. ENDS