22 Sep 2013

Childline Botswana has been urged to consistently review as well as improve its processes and interventions.

Giving a keynote address at Childline Botswana annual general meeting recently, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Peter Siele said the organisation's board of trustees and management needed to uphold the highest standards of corporate governance and ensure excellent controls to maintain the integrity it was known for in its two decades of existence.

He said it was worthwhile that Childline Botswana had over the years maintained a strong partnership with the government in implementing child care and protection policies and programmes including instruments that the country hads ratified. He noted that Childline Botswana was registered in 1990, saying it was not only indicative of excellent governance and management, but also relevance and integrity.

The minister noted that as an NGO that depended on donations and grants for sustenance, donors needed assurance that their funds were utilised entirely for the benefit of intended beneficiaries. He said it was imperative that the relationship between civil societies and the government be nurtured and accepted as a medium for social upliftment.

He noted that NGOs were an integral part of a progressive democracy and that their existence was largely to play a complimentary role to government. Minister Siele acknowledged that NGOs on their own were able to offer services in hard to reach communities therefore closing out service provision gaps.

He said government found it fit to work with NGOs for the upliftment of Batswana rather than having an antagonistic relationship. For her part, the chairperson of the board of trustees, Ms Wilhemina Makwinja said the organisation had been facing many challenges since 2008 as some board members resigned.

She said 12 companies that had pledged P50 000 annually as contribution also pulled out as the economy transcended into recession. Despite this, she said the organisation was able to wither the storm and emerge in one piece, saying 2012 was dedicated to rebuilding the organisation at a strategic level.

Ms Makwinja noted that the organisation has grown from being run by volunteers to 24 full-time members. She said the growth was independent of any organisational strategic positioning or alignment. However, she said the growth has had an impact on the organisation’s finances, adding that the current deficit was more than P600 000 as indicated by the audited financial statements.

In order to mitigate such an impact, she said there was a need to undertake an organisational re-engineering process to increase efficiency and the ability to assist customers with fewer resources. This process, she noted, commenced in the last quarter of 2012 with organisational restructuring. She said a five year strategic plan was in the process of being completed to optimise efficiency.

She thanked the Department of Social Protection for its grants and Letshego Financial Services as well as Kentucky Fried Chicken for assisting financially even during hard economic times. Meanwhile, the meeting adopted the financial audit report and welcomed new board of trustee members who filled the vacant positions. ENDS