12 Feb 2023

Mmadinare MP, Mr Molebatsi Molebatsi, has called for appropriate project implementation and monitoring to realise a broad-based transformation as well as create new wealth prospects of economic opportunities.

Mr Molebatsi made the call in his contribution to the debate on the budget speech in Parliament on February 9.

“Project implementation is of paramount importance consistent with the country’s aspirations and determination to become a high-income country by 2036,” he said.

He thus applauded government for allocating a large share of the budget towards infrastructure investment.

However, the MP expressed concern about lack of implementation for which he encouraged policies and project implementers to stay committed in moving the country forward in order for the budget to produce tangible results and stay relevant to the current economic needs.

“The country’s workforce and policy implementers should be mindful that they are the driving force behind the country’s economic growth as low level of productivity is of less importance to the country regardless of the amount of funds allocated to the development budget,” he said.

He added that the development budget was the economic growth driver and should provide opportunities for employment creation, therefore lack of capacity to deliver project needed critical review as government aimed to empower citizen-owned companies.

As such, Mr Molebatsi implored the relevant ministry to ensure that projects were awarded to citizen-owned companies and reserve some constituency community projects for contractors in the immediate locality, so as to distribute the impact of the fiscal stimulus throughout the country.

He argued that poor implementation of government programmes and projects continued to be a challenge, with projects experiencing cost overruns and delayed completion which resulted in government overspending.

He added that government needed to commit to strengthening project management, monitoring and evaluation structures. To that effect, he hailed the proposed government’s project management division as a welcomed initiative.

On one hand, the MP decried the rampant corrupt practices, which he said defeated the country’s efforts to attain economic growth.

“Government should continuously strive to put in place measures and mechanisms, through application of best practices of good governance to ensure that corruption is defeated at all levels of governance including during awarding of developmental projects,” he said.

He said corruption, if left unchecked, would destroy the country’s economy, hence urging Batswana to be part of the fight against corruption in order to eliminate the scourge that was increasingly becoming institutionalised in both public and private sectors.

“We will not succeed in attracting the desired foreign direct investment (FDI), nor will we succeed to grow our economy in any meaningful way if we allow corruption to be part of our business culture,” Mr Molebatsi said.

For his part, Kgalagadi South MP, Mr Sam Brooks said the 2023/2024 budget proposals were ideal to the implementation of the country’s transformation journey.

Mr Brooks was therefore hopeful that the 2023/2024 budget, which marked the first year of the two-year Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP), would enable government to implement some of the projects which could not be implemented under the eleventh National Development Plan (NDP 11).

“The TNDP brings hope for the much anticipated upgrade of the Tsabong Primary Hospital which could not be implemented under the NDP 11,” he said.

Meanwhile, the MP called for resuscitation of parliamentary oversight committees in order to hold government accounting officers liable. Ends