02 Mar 2022

Member of Parliament for Kanye North has emphasised the need for the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to rebuild the Government Investment Account (GIA). 

Debating the finance ministry budget estimates for the financial year 2022/2023 on Tuesday, MP Thapelo Letsholo said it was worrying that the GIA had dropped over the past six years to less than five per cent of the GDP. 

He said six years ago, the GIA was reported to be at 35 per cent of the GDP. 

“As a consequence our credit rating will continue to face the downward curve,” he said. 

He thus challenged finance minister, Ms Peggy Serame to clearly state how government would rebuild the GIA back to above 35 per cent of GDP. 

The legislator also expressed concern about the slow progress of implementation of the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) model. 

He said something should be done to speed it up, hence urged government to utilise PPP to construct a hospital in Kanye. 

Bobonong MP, Mr Taolo Lucas called on the ministry to focus more resources on poverty reduction, the fight against hunger and reduction of inequalities. 

He said government strategies should target communities hard hit by poverty, inequalities and hunger. The opposition legislator further said the budget proposed by the minister should have contained clear targets for poverty reduction and job creation. 

“The minister should come out clear by how much poverty would be reduced and over what period, as we move towards 2036. 

The budget should also clearly spell how many jobs government intends to create in the coming financial year and subsequent financial years, Mr Lucas said. 

The MP argued that various taxes introduced by government over the past two years were weighing heavily on poor people. 

He, therefore, asked the minister to review the tax regime, suggesting that government target the upper tax rate. 

Mmadinare MP, Mr Molebatsi Molebatsi commended the minister for continuation of zero based budgeting, saying the model was good for efficient use of financial resources. 

Goodhope/Mabule MP, Mr Eric Molale expressed concern about lack of maintenance of government property. He said the issue was caused by inefficient registration of government assets. 

He said many of government assets all over the country were in state of deterioration. 

He also urged the minister to ensure that government departments paid contractors within the stipulated time frame. 

“Prompt payments must be top of the list of things that should be done,” he said. 

Palapye MP, Mr Onneetse Ramogapi called on the minister to ensure that retired civil servants were given their retirement funds on time. 

He said there had been many instances where retired civil servants went for years without getting their retirement funds due to delays from government.  

“Civil servants should also be allowed to cash from their retirement funds to improve their lives before they retire,” he suggested. 

In response, Minister Serame agreed that Government Investment Account should be rebuilt. She said the country, however, would need to have budget surpluses to be able to rebuild the GIA. 

She said that would be achieved through prudent spending. 

Ms Serame also said the ministry would, in the future, make developments at more border posts including non-commercial ones. 

She further said they would intensify public education on financial matters. 

Ms Serame added that the ministry was in the process of ensuring that implementation of projects was done on time. 

She agreed with MPs that the issue of registration and maintenance of government assets should be done effectively. 

On PPPs, she admitted that it was slow, adding, however, that the fact that few big projects had been done through PPP indicated some progress. 

She said the ministry was also in the process of attaining assistance to speed up the PPP progress. 

Meanwhile, Parliament approved the finance ministry’s budget request of about P2.7 billion, which comprised over P2.3 billion  of the recurrent expenditure and about P311 million development budget. ends