10 Mar 2024

The Attorney General’s Chambers recurrent budget for the financial year 2024/25 will increase with P31 million from the current financial year budget.

Justice minister, Mr Machana Shamukuni  revealed this when requesting Parliament to approve the Attorney General’s Chambers recurrent budget  of P360.6 million .

The current financial year budget allocation was P328.9 million.

Mr Shamukuni said the major drivers of the increase included the five per cent salary adjustment and allowances for public officers and legal costs, which grew from P23 million to P43 million to cater for the escalating court cases in government and related outsourcing of legal services.

He also noted that there had been an increase in criminal cases emanating from emerging legal concepts or areas in which the Attorney General’s Cambers and the Directorate of Public Prosecution were under-resourced or lacked expertise.

Such, he said, necessitated outsourcing to external senior or specialised legal counsels whose charges were on a higher legal fees scale.

As for the development budget, Mr Shamukuni proposed P23.6 million for various projects. Among those, he said, was the refurbishment of the Attorney General’s Chambers at P16 million. 

He said the takeover of prosecution duties from Botswana Police Service had been allocated about P4.6 million. 

Minister Shamukuni said the amount would also be used to facilitate the opening of the Ghanzi and Shakawe satellite offices for the DPP, adding that the Tsabong and Kasane satellite offices, which were started in the 2023/24 financial year, would be completed at the end of the 2024/25 financial year.

Mr Shamukuni, who is also the Member of Parliament for Chobe, said the Attorney General’s  Chambers faced acute shortage of vehicles. He said for the 2024/25 financial year, fleet expansion for the AG was budgeted for P3 million.

He further said the construction of the DPP facilities in Maun had been allocated P3 million to cater for the project’s closure, and further stated that an additional P9 million was reallocated from other projects within the department to cover the contractor’s claims after the project could not be completed on time.

He noted that in December 2023, an amount of P32.3 million was allocated to the project through a supplementary budget.

The minister informed the house that the project was 97 per cent complete and was expected to be completed by the end of this month. Ends