02 Mar 2023

It is important to adequately finance the Ministry for State President to continue promoting good governance through effective leadership and coordination of government policies and programmes.

Acting President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane, also Member of Parliament for Boteti West, said the such would result in sustainable development and improved quality of life.

He highlighted such as he supported the ministry’s budget estimates for the 2023/2024 financial year presented by Minister Kabo Morwaeng recently.

In support of the proposed estimates, Mr Tsogwane said the ministry’s inclusion of the National Transformation Strategy (NTS) under its wing was a commendable move because, though still in its infancy, the strategy played a key role in aiding government’s efforts to diversify and transform the country’s economy in order to achieve high prosperity.

He also acknowledged the ministry’s efforts to develop the contract management framework and business excellence model.

The frameworks, he said, would enhance project management capacity across government.

“It is pleasing that the contract management framework was outsourced to the Attorney General’s Chambers for facilitation on account of their in-house expertise, hence the expectations are for it to be water tight and guard against allocation of projects to incompetent companies,” Mr Tsogwane said.

He highlighted the need to differentiate between the Ministry for State President and Office of the President, arguing that the two had dissimilar mandates.

Responding to the legislators’ comments, Minister Morwaeng reaffirmed government’s commitment to root out corruption.

He said corruption, if left unchecked, could destroy the country’s economy, therefore urged 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 and hindered economic transformation.

On concerns raised by some MPs, among them inaccessibility of Parliament proceedings on Btv, Mr Morwaeng told them that proceedings were always aired on Btv2, which was a public information channel that aired  information and educational and government programmes such as Ntlo Ya Dikgosi proceedings, kgotla meetings and others.

The channel, he said, was available on the set-top box on channel number three, adding the gadgets were available at various distributors and at a once-off affordable price with no monthly subscriptions.

The minister further indicated that it was not surprising for President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi to headline news on state media.

“The President as the head of state is tirelessly working to improve the livelihoods of Batswana and committed to lead the country in various developmental strides, hence the extent of his media coverage,” he said.

Mr Morwaeng further dismissed claims that the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) was under executive claws.

“The DCEC independently executes its duties delicately without any intimidation or restriction from the Office of the President,” he said.

Meanwhile, Parliament approved the ministry’s requested funds of over P2.3 billion and over P1 billion as the recurrent and development budgets  respectively. ENDS