10 Feb 2014

The introduction of Government Accounting and Budgeting System (GABS) has improved service delivery and accountability, Parliament has been told.

Assistant Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Mr Vincent Seretse said what might be perceived as a GABS problem was a network connectivity problem by some departments.

Responding to a question from MP for Okavango, Mr Bagalatia Arone, Mr Seretse said only five departments in the Okavango constituency were connected to GABS and officers in those departments have passwords to access the system.

“Departments that have been trained will be required to provide relevant infrastructure such as network points and computers for them to be connected to GABS,” said Mr Seretse.

He indicated that a password was only given once the set-up, connectivity and tests had been completed for a specific department.

“My ministry continues to process purchase orders, payments and revenue receipts manually where connectivity has not been available, otherwise we urge departments which have not yet completed their connectivity to take appropriate action,” he said.

MP Arone had wanted to know if the Minister of Finance and Development Planning was aware that the introduction of GABS has crippled service delivery as most of the time the system is not working and very slow.

The legislator also asked if the ministry was aware that some trained officers in the Okavango constituency have not been given passwords to access the system. Ends