10 Mar 2014

The Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi says it is a requirement that any service providers who are doing business with government be paid through Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) as opposed to retail banking and cheque payments.

Mr Molebatsi said this when responding to a question from the Member of Parliament for Kweneng East, Maj. Gen. Moeng Pheto on Wednesday, March 4.

He told the house that payments were directly deposited in the Supplier’s bank account and suppliers were expected to have an account with commercial banks.

Mr Molebatsi said in order for suppliers to be paid through EFT, they also had to be created in Government Accounting and Budgeting System (GABS).

This decision, he said, was made primarily to curb fraud, as large sums of money were either embezzled or lost when payments were done through paying officers.

He said they were aware of delays in payments processing especially for tractor owners who were not created in GABS and in areas where internet network is constantly down.

However, Mr Molebatsi said in order to speed up the process, claims of less than P3 000 can be made over the counter in revenue offices and manual preparation of payments is allowed where network is not available.

He noted that abolishing of retail banking services, cheque payments and rollout of Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) to suppliers was effected on September 1, 2011. He said suppliers since then have been advised on annual basis to open accounts with commercial banks.

MP Pheto had asked the minister as to why tractor owners who ploughed for farmers in the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD) were forced to open bank accounts in order to do business with the Ministry of Agriculture.

He also asked if he was aware that the operational charge adversely affects most tractor owners to the extent that they could not help farmers on time due to delays in processing their claims.

The Kweneng East legislator also wanted the minister to clarify whether the adequate consultations were made before the beginning of the ploughing season. ENDS