12 Feb 2013

Government has been encouraged to craft development plans based on core economic activities that take place in different areas around the country.

The MP for Mahalapye West, Mr Benard  Bolele said this when contributing to the debate on the 2013/14 budget speech on Monday.

 He suggested that when the minister availed funds for the improvement of Botswana Railways in Mahalapye, these should also cater for outlying areas in the vicinity of the village to boost rural development.

Mr Bolele explained that it was of no benefit to continue pouring money into one entity when it does not have a trickle down effect in neighbouring localities.

“The budget must be formulated in such a way that it boosts the core industry and provide further developments in outlying areas if we are to improve the livelihoods of our citizens,” he said.

The MP said it was disheartening to note that government had been pouring money into Botswana Railways for the last 20 years but this had not triggered any economic benefits in terms of the establishment of industries related to railways.

When commenting on the defence budget proposals, MP Bolele said there was need to establish a committee on defence and intelligence which would serve as an oversight body on their procurement proposals.

 He noted that it seemed that government did not trust Parliament to interrogate budget proposals for the defence and intelligence agencies. Mr Bolele said such a body, made up of four or five MPs, should be able to access the proposals from the disciplined forces but not make their contents public.

 “MPs should be taken into confidence on what the defence forces want to do with their proposed funds and there is also a need for the setting up of upper limits for their budget which correlates with the country’s GDP,” he argued.

Consequently, he warned against spending on intelligence and defence and fall into the trap of countries whose expenditure on their defence forces had a detrimental impact on other sectors of the economy.

On other issues, he said it was saddening to note that Batswana around Mahalapye did not have enough drinking water yet the government spent money constructing dams and the North-South Water carrier pipeline to address the issue.

“It is very sad to note that Mahalapye can go for days without water yet the water pipeline passes by their village,”he said.

On other issues, Mr Bolele said the form three results called for intervention by Parliament through the provision of resources.He stressed that if this does not happen, the consequences would be too severe for the country to deal with in future.

However, he commended the finance minister for availing funds for the Ipelegeng programme and acknowledged that this would cushion citizens against the negative effects of poverty. ENDS