22 Feb 2023

The Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP) is justifiable as it will ensure a political term is aligned with a planning period, thereby making accountability easier.

Responding to the 2023/24 financial year budget proposals on February 21, Minister of Transport and Public Works, Mr Eric Molale indicated that the previous arrangement where the political and planning periods straddled posed a challenge as far as ownership and accountability were concerned.

“This alignment will help any incoming government to make its own development plans that it will see to very end, and in that way if there are any failures it will be held accountable without any excuse. The alignment is not creating room for corruption as some allege,” he said.

Mr Molale also indicated that the decision by his ministry to introduce engineering procurement and construction manager, commonly known as development manager, for all major public works was the right move as it would help in ensuring timely completion of government projects.

“This model would ensure timely completion because under it there is no room for complacency due to constant monitoring and supervision of contractors. The current challenge of less supervision has led to finger pointing between government and contractors, which often led to court cases and therefore more delays in projects completion,” he said.

For her part, Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Ms Nnaniki Makwinja applauded government for achieving some development projects amid the COVID-19 challenges, citing infrastructure such as roads and water reticulation. Ms Makwinja, also Member of Parliament for Mmopane-Lentsweletau, also applauded government for the electrification of 450 gazetted villages, which she said constituted about 80 per cent of gazetted villages across the country. “These are efforts that we should applaud the Botswana Democratic Party-led government for. We are also alive to complaints of corruption and poor implementation of projects and we need to take care of such,” she said.

She however, said the bulk of project delays was the doing of contractors rather than government as funds would have been duly released. She however supported the Public Private Partnership (PPP) and the Development Manager models saying they would come in handy in speeding up project delivery.

Ms Makwinja also appreciated government for formulating strict anti-money laundering legislations, which she said ultimately ensured that Botswana was removed from the international grey listings.

Member of Parliament for Nkange, Dr Never Tshabang on one hand, urged government to ensure that the TNDP was implemented to the letter, unlike past initiatives such as the 2019 National Transformation Team which he said died a natural death although it was given a huge mandate to assist in driving the country towards a knowledge-based economy from reliance on minerals.

Dr Tshabang also said that the P550 million funding towards value chain development was not enough to unlock the industry.

“Looking at the many years at the helm, it is expected that the ruling party would have by now managed to diversify the economy from mineral based and developed other sectors such as manufacturing,” he said.

The legislator also expressed reservations at the decision by government to fund budget deficits through loans, something he said was risky as it would create debt for future generations. 

Such move, he added, was evidence that the country was faced with a fiscal challenge. ends