24 Feb 2022

Procurement entities have been advised to seek permission and have valid reasons  to award tenders to if foreign owned companies.

Responding to comments from MP’s after approval of the 2022/23 National Budget proposals, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Ms Peggy Serame said although  the legislators’ recommendations on  the P3 billion for maintenance of infrastructure were welcomed, she said there would be instances where foreign companies would be engaged.

Initially in her budget speech presented earlier this month, Minister Serame had said a bulk of the funds would be reserved but the MPs said the whole amount should be reserved for local companies.

Infrastructure to be maintained includes roads, health facilities and school buildings, she said.

Minister Serame remained steadfast that government expenditure should empower citizens and said they were amending laws to enable the Permanent Secretary to take disciplinary action against officers who continue to award tenders to foreign companies when Batswana who could do the job were available.

She requested procurement entities to cancel their tender invitations in order to allow citizen owned companies to tender.

Meanwhile, the minister said the Scarce Skills allowances would be reviewed as some skills were no longer scarce while others were still needed.

She explained that three per cent of annual salaries was spent on scarce skills, showing that certain professionals no longer qualified.

The scheme was introduced in 2008 to attract people with certain qualifications to join the public service and the minister said it was never reviewed. She further agreed with the MPs that the country’s productivity level remained low.

The minister also explained the development process to the MPs, saying all projects had been approved during the Mid Term Review of the National Development Plan (NDP) 11.

She said the MPs knew what was in the NDP 11 as they approved the projects and therefore they should not act surprised and state that there were no developments in their constituencies.

Ms Serame said the upgrading of the A1 highway to a dual carriageway was included in the NDP 11 Mid Term Review, adding however not all projects had been undertaken due to budgetary constraints.

She further said a number of people had showed interest to partner with government in undertaking development projects through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, saying however most wanted to push all the risks to government.

The minister said there would be a conference in April where all PPP projects and modalities would be discussed.

She further said all the projects done throughout the country were expected to result with some form of employment opportunities. ENDS