07 Mar 2024

Parliament has approved the office of the Auditor General’s proposed budget of over P114 million recurrent budget for the 2024/2025 financial year.

Presenting the budget to Parliament, Assistant Minister for State President, Ms Boitumelo Gofhamodimo highlighted that the budget request for development funds had already been submitted under the Ministry for State President.

Citing some of the achievements by the office of the Auditor General for the 2023/2024 financial year, Ms Gofhamodimo said the office had increased in the audit coverage of development projects. 

She said the delivery of the projects on time and within budget was not only key to efficient use of public resources, but was also important in transitioning the economy from middle income to high-income status.

She further said the priority areas that the audits covered during the financial year 2023/2024 included mega projects, digitisation and the health sector. 

“Fifteen mega projects selected from different sectors of the economy were included in the audit plan and they focused on critical projects such as water reticulation, electricity supply networks and fuel storage,” she said.

Ms Gofhamodimo added that 10 were at the reporting stage while five had been deferred due to manpower constraints.

Concerning digitisation, Ms Gofhamodimo highlighted that two projects were selected and that both had been completed.

Going forward, Ms Gofhamodimo said the plan was to increase the number of audits under the priority area.

Regarding the health sector, she said five audits were planned to include major health facilities such as Princess Marina Hospital and the Central Medical Stores. She said three were at the reporting stage while two had been completed.

Moreover, Ms Gofhamodimo said during the 2023/2024 financial year, the central government audit portfolio consisted of 18 ministries and six extra ministerial departments. 

She noted that inclusive in the number were three new ministries which were created through the rationalisation process. 

“There were 61 parastatals for which the Auditor General is duty bound to review their audit reports and incorporate their findings into the Auditor General’s annual report,” she said.

On the regional front, Ms Gofhamodimo said the Auditor General had two audits at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) on a three-year rotational basis and that both were in their second year. 

“For SACU, Botswana is the sole auditor and in the third and final year. The country will chair the SADC board of auditors with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi as members,” she said. 

She noted that the audits of the regional bodies were completed successfully.

In a quest for audit excellence, she said the Auditor General continued to collaborate with the African Organisation for Supreme Audit Institutions- English speaking (AFROSAI-E) and the International Organisation for Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) as technical development partners. 

“For the year under review, AFROSAI-E conducted quality assurance reviews on audit work and the operations of the office of the Auditor General (OAG),” she stated.

She highlighted that over time the quality assurance reviews had improved the quality of audits and the overall management of the office.

Breaking down the proposed recurrent budget for the 2024/2025 financial year, Ms Gofhamodimo proposed over P12 million under departmental services to cater for rental of additional office space to decongest the office. 

She said over P1 million was requested under training. “This is a decrease of 39 per cent due to  transitioning from face to face training to online courses,” she said.

Furthermore, the minister requested over P2 million under the special expenditure account for vehicle and computer replacement. 

“This amount represents an increase of 71 per cent from last year’s allocation,” she noted. Ends