11 Mar 2020

Accounting for expenditure at local government structures is critical in reducing wastage of public resources, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr Thapelo Matsheka has said.

Speaking at the commencement of a three-day Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA) annual conference held in Gaborone on March 10, Dr Matsheka said there was a growing mismatch between the recurrent expenditure and development budget.

He indicated that if expenditure of governance structures were not reviewed and carefully audited they would impair the development trajectory of the country while corrupt practices would proliferate.

Dr Matsheka noted that the country had a strong fiscus to resolve and would therefore be looking to re-prioritise projects during the mid-term review of the eleventh National Development Plan (NDP 11).

He said re-prioritisation of projects was to ensure that transformative developments could be carried out to sustain basic needs of Batswana while conforming to efficient public expenditure.

He emphasised the importance of collective leadership in developing the country noting that corruption and waste were the biggest threat that the country currently faced.

The minister further revealed that he would tour the country together with local government and rural development minister to find out what kind of projects were being carried out at council level.

He added that councils would also be audited based on the asset management policy to determine how public resources were being utilised.

He underscored the need to get mileage out of government assets as paramount to ensuring that Batswana got the relevant help they needed from local authorities, especially district councils, saying ‘the next budget may be brutal.’

Further, Dr Matsheka noted that re-definitions of district councils was also important for improved service delivery and rooting out inefficiencies in the public service.

Discussions around building capacities of civic societies for development in their localities prompted discussions around deficits in allocated budgets.

Shared sentiments by different councillors were that the per capita cost of providing services across their sparse geographical servicing areas were low in comparison to available funds.

Councillors also noted that the Public Procurement and Assert Disposal Board and Local Authorities Procurement and Asset Disposal Acts were in need of reviews as they created latency issues in procurement activities and hindered efficiencies at local government.

Responding to grievances, Minister of Local government and Rural Development, Mr Eric Molale noted that councils needed to revamp strategies on partial cost recoveries due in corporate properties around the country.

He revealed that some councils were still not recovering costs from some malls around the country despite such malls benefiting from government facilitated resources.
The recoveries, he said would be beneficial in improving operating costs for councils to plough back into the development of their localities.
Mr Molale also encouraged councils to take up the benefits of technology in improving service delivery. ENDS