26 May 2021

Okavango Sub-district Council will for the 2021/2022 financial year operate with a limited approved recurrent budget of P171 027 390.

Speaking at the opening of the recent Okavango Sub-district Council session, the chairperson, Mr Mpoke Karapo said the budget comprised revenue support grant of P164 400 567, COVID-19 preventative measures at primary schools at P2 908 753 and income from own source amounting to P3 630 070.

“Our financial budget has been ailing for the past two financial years. In comparison to the original proposed budget estimates of the 2020/2021 financial year of P181 351 190, the budget expenditure shows a reduction of six per cent,” he said. 

Mr Karapo noted that budget cuts would continue for a long time because according to data from Statistics Botswana, inflation fell significantly from 2.2 per cent in September 2019 to 1.8 per cent in September 2020.

He said the situation was affecting the national budget, hence councils were compelled to intensify revenue generation.

Revenue collection for the ending financial year, Mr Karapo said stood at P2 024 663. 

Mr Karapo also noted that for this financial year, the roads division had been allocated P13 900 980, of which P3 729 000 was for the maintenance of roads under the recurrent budget and P6.6 million for maintenance of roads under fuel levy funds and P1 369 870 for drilling and equipping of boreholes under CCP funds.

He said Okavango Sub-district would execute three projects, being paving of 1.2km of Gumare internal roads with interlocking bricks, paving of 0.5km of Shakawe internal roads and gravelling of one kilometre of Gumare internal roads under fuel levy funds, adding that tenders for such were already floating.

In addition, Mr Karapo informed the councillors that under the constituency community projects, the contractor was mobilising the site for the drilling and equipping of three boreholes at Danega, Thale and Nxauko respectively.

Similarly, he said the ub-council was also conducting in-house maintenance of gravel roads from Etsha 1 to Etsha 13 as well as primary school grounds under the recurrent budget. Ends