26 Feb 2014

Ministry of State President’s recurrent budget has increased by about 12 per cent, says Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi.

Presenting the 2014/2015 budget proposal to Parliament on Tuesday, February 25, Mr Masisi said the increase was attributed to increases in the allocations of Government Printing and Publishing Services (GPPS) and Directorate of Economic Crime and Corruption (DCEC) at approximately 60 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.

He explained that the increase at GPPS was with regard to printing paper and materials as well as static plant items, whilst at DCEC increases were mainly under the personnel emoluments, office rentals and service charges.

He further said out of the proposed recurrent budget, Directorate of Intelligence Services would take the largest share of 29 per cent, followed by Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) and Department of Broadcasting Services at 16 per cent and 15 per cent respectively whilst the rest of departments under his ministry shared the remaining 40 per cent.

He therefore requested about P946 million for recurrent budget and about P1.1 billion for development budget, which also presented an increase of 62 per cent from the previous budget.

The minister attributed development budget increase to the transfer of E-Government Programme Implementation Office from the Ministry of Transport and Communication, the digital migration project as well as a budgetary provision for the acquisition of additional office space for the ministry.

He said out of the total amount requested, NACA took the largest share of 21.5 per cent followed by DIS at 17 per cent, Poverty Eradication Programme at 13 per cent, development of ICT facilities and procurement of additional office space at 17 per cent at 12 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

The remaining 23 per cent of the budget, he said would be shared among the rest of the departments: Office of the President, DPSM, National Strategy Office, Office of the Auditor General, Department of Broadcasting Services and DCEC.

Mr Masisi, who is also MP for Moshupa, informed Parliament that several projects will be under taken in various departments under his ministry.

He said about P17 million was requested to design and develop the news management system during the 2014/2015 financial year, adding that the production and printing of the DailyNews would be fully automated with the development of the new system.

He said about P19m was requested to continue with various studies to review performance on Vision 2016 leading to the Development and Implementation of the National Monitoring and Evaluation Framework as well as Doing Business Reform Roadmap.

Mr Masisi also stated that P160m was requested to continue the Poverty Eradication Programme. In addition, he said, P140m was requested for the purpose of augmenting the Office of the President’s space by purchasing office buildings as well as to cover refurbishment costs to make them fit for purpose.

Other projects to be undertaken included the development of an integrated e-Government solution, completion of refurbishment of facilities at the Botswana Civil Service College, development of media facilities as well as NACA activities.BOPA