06 Aug 2023

Ministry of Finance is not conducting any investigations regarding funds of Bank of Botswana (BoB), says Minister Peggy Serame.

Ms Serame, who was responding to a parliamentary question,  said the ministry had procedures and arrangements in place for investments which entailed  sweeping arrangements between government remittance account, liquidity portfolio and Pula Fund.

She said the office of the accountant general issued instructions to the central bank regarding minimum and maximum thresholds to be maintained in the accounts and that the thresholds were influenced by the expenditure and revenue patterns of government resulting in prudent cash management.

She noted that Section 15(2) of the Public Finance Management Act had centralised the opening of all the bank accounts for government to the Accountant General. “All payment transactions through government accounts are subject to approval process and on a monthly basis, reconciliations are carried out to validate the entries in the bank statements,” said Minister Serame. 

She noted that there had been questions regarding funds at BoB that were asked before by different MPs

She said her predecessor had previously answered questions in relation to government funds missing from the remittance account at BoB.

“The answer provided was that the matter was in relation to the state of the reconciliations of the bank balances with government records of spending and receipts,” she said. 

Ms Serame noted that on February 28, 2020, Maun West MP, Mr Dumelang Saleshando asked the question on security of funds under the custody of BoB.

“I wish to emphasise that the BoB board has established an effective framework of monetary, financial, banking and administrative policies and procedures for monitoring and controls of the bank’s operations in accordance with established central banking governance and traditions,” she said.

Ms Serame reminded Parliament that the audited annual financial statements of the BoB were submitted by April 30 each year as required by the BoB Act.

Mr Saleshando had asked the minister to give an update on investigations regarding missing funds or stolen from Bank of Botswana. ends