07 Feb 2022

Weaknesses in policy and project implementation would see Government Implementation and Coordination Office (GICO) rising to the occasion to project service delivery.
Presenting a Budget on Monday in Gaborone, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Ms Peggy Serame said Botswana was expecting several key changes, adding that GICO would introduce development manager approach to project delivery.

She said that would be a concept where major public projects would be packaged and their implementation outsourced to private companies.
She said smaller projects would be selected for implementation on turnkey basis, where a contractor would be appointed to handle the entirety of design, management, and construction and would be paid on handover to government.

She further said management and maintenance of selected government owned buildings would be outsourced to private sector through facilities management contracts. She said those initiatives would facilitate a quantum shift in the implementation of public sector projects.
Ms Serame however said those initiatives would only be successful if they confront the problem of corruption.

On a positive note, Ms Serame said government continued to make progress by utilising Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for financing and implementation of projects.
She said eight power generation projects contract were about to be signed to be implemented using a PPP model involving Independent Power Producers.

She said some of the projects would be reclamation and treatment of Gaborone wastewater for potable use, Sehitwa-Shakawe and Francistown-Nata roads, the tolling of some sections of the A1, cross border railway projects to South Africa and Zambia. She further said PPPs would be used for the construction of student accommodation and teacher’s housing.
Ms Serame also said government was pursuing the decentralisation agenda, involving the decentralisation of key public services to Local Authorities (LAs) to enhance ownership and accountability and bring services closer to the people.

She said decentralizing public services to LAs, certain functions carried out by central ministries would be moved to implementing ministries and departments.
She pointed out that would devolve some powers to accounting officers, so to have an ability to make rapid decisions and in turn improving their effectiveness and accountability.

On a different note, Ms Serame said the use of cheques in Botswana will be discontinued, effective January 1, 2024.
She said the shift would be to the use of Electronic Fund Transfers and Point of Sale (POS) transactions. ENDS