08 Mar 2020

Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Culture Development, Mr Tumiso Rakgare says the monthly rental for his ministry headquarters building is P1 240 490 excluding VAT.

Responding to a parliamentary question recently, Mr Rakgare said the leasing of the Annex building was necessary given the staff compliment and office space requirements of the ministry and its departments.

He said the three-storey building had a total floor area of 2 820 square metres, and it housed the Botswana National Library Service, MYSC Gaborone District offices, the Public Relations Unit and the ministry’s communication centre.

Minister Rakgare said the ministry had not yet paid for the building while still under construction and procedurally any building proposed for leasing by government must have an Occupation Certificate issued by a competent authority.

“When the ministry made a request to the Office Allocation Committee to lease the building in December 2016, it was already complete and ready for customisation and occupation,” he said. “The lease agreement commenced on April 1, 2017 and that was the time at which rental payments were effected,” he added.  

Minister Rakgare said a total of P1 650 247 was paid as rent from April to August 2017 and that translated to P330 049 per month for a period of five months.

Furthermore, he said the ministry occupied the building in September 2017, following customisation/ partitioning and procurement of ICT works, which included networking and trunking.

He further explained that the ministry had leased several buildings across the country, and had complied fully with the government office accommodation process guidelines as provided by the Department of Lands.

Therefore, there had never been a time during which the ministry paid for unoccupied buildings, until expiry of their leases.

Member of Parliament for Mmadinare, Mr Molebatsi Molebatsi had asked how much the ministry paid as rent for its headquarters on monthly basis and if the occupation or leasing of the annex building was necessary.

Mr Molebatsi had also wanted clarification as to why government paid for the building while it was under construction, how much had been paid before the building was occupied by the ministry and how many buildings the ministry had paid for until the lease expired without occupying them. ENDS