22 Feb 2024

Minister of Finance, Ms Peggy Serame has thanked Members of Parliament (MPs) for supporting the 2024/25 financial year budget proposal.

The minister, responding to comments raised by MPs when debating the budget speech, said the budgeting process included consultations with stakeholders such as MPs.

She said much of the information contained in the budget proposal was not foreign to legislature, adding that the ministry would continue to engage with the public and other stakeholders in formulating the budget as well as improving how to reach out to stakeholders.

The minister said the proposal before Parliament was an all-inclusive budget tailored to include women, youth and other vulnerable groups. She said although the budget had been increased, taxes were not increased to ensure that Batswana benefited.

Furthermore, she said unemployment remained a challenge and that an increased budget was expected to contribute to job creation. She also said money given to the private sector to do public projects would create jobs.

She said other labour intensive sectors such as agriculture, information and technology among others would aid in employment creation. Minister Serame also said government emphasised value chain development as it would create job opportunities from existing industries.

However, she said there was a need to ensure that public funds were used in an effective and efficient manner.

As an intervention, she said her ministry was reviewing the Public Finance Management Act to give the Minister of Finance more powers to deal with inefficiency among others. She added that there was a need to strengthen the monitoring of public projects to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.

Regarding the Development Manager model which was introduced by government in an effort to deliver infrastructural projects of desired quality within time and budget, she said there was transparency in the process as government had invited companies to show interest and that only 123 responded.

Subsequent to that, she said only 27 submitted their tender documents and that nine were eventually chosen during adjudication. The minister also said the budget catered for the informal sector as it was government’s goal to grow the sector.

She said the informal sector had the potential to contribute meaningfully to the economy and that it needed to be supported. She added that the introduction of the Chema Chema Fund was an intervention to help the sector grow.

Minister Serame also said it was not the first time that government had catered for the informal sector, noting that during COVID-19 the sector was registered and assisted through a COVID-19 Relief Fund.

Ms Serame said in formulating the Chema Chema Fund, government engaged the informal sector association, adding that the fund guidelines would be ready by the beginning of March.

Regarding the Government Accounting and Budgeting System, Ms Serame said efforts were ongoing to address the system’s problem, adding that there should be an improvement by April. On political party funding, she said stakeholders of all party conference would be convened to address the modalities of how the fund should work. ENDS