27 Feb 2014

Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs has been allocated P334.7 million as recurrent budget for 2014/15 financial year, Minister Edwin Batshu has said.

Presenting the budget estimates before Parliament on Wednesday, February 26, Mr Batshu said his ministry had also been allocated P44 million for development.

Talking about recurrent budget, he said the amount of P88 million was to be allocated to the ministry headquarters. The amount, he said, had increased slightly to cater for replacement of boarded vehicles. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship is to receive P132 million while that of Labour and Social Security is to be allocated P40 million.

Gender affairs department budget is to be maintained at P17 million and the Department of Civil and National Registration will receive P56 million. The amount has been increased by P6.5 million over the 2013/14 budget due to increases on salaries and allowances.

For the development budget, Mr Batshu proposed that P31 million be spent on several computerisation projects in his ministry such as development of work permit module under the Immigration and Citizenship System (P5 million) and P10 million will be spent on the rollout of Passport and Border Control System to the remaining 17 offline borders.

Minister Batshu said P8 million will be used for undertaking a Statement of User Requirements (SOUR) and capacity building for the computerisation of critical functions of the Civil and National Registration Project while P8 million will be used in the procurement for  Civil and National Registration to facilitate the upcoming General Elections.

The minister said P5.8 million is budged to acquire additional fleet during the 2014/15 financial year.

He proposed P6.650 million for consultancy fees with P5 million going to Gender Based Violence and Elimination initiatives.

The minister said P500 000 will be used for the development of Competency Based Modularised Training Project under Madirelo Training and Testing Centre and another P500 000 will be used in the empowerment of Non-Government Organisations.

The remaining P650 000 will fund the German Technical Assistance in the proposed merger of Madirelo Training and Testing Centre (MTTC) and Construction Industry Trade Fund (CITF).

Minister Batshu proposed P600 000 for procurement of furniture and equipment for MTTC workshop. ENDS