17 Mar 2014

Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi has asked Parliament to approve budget estimates for Auditor General amounting to P48.1million for the recurrent budget for the financial year 2014/15.

Speaking in Parliament Thursday, March 13 he said the proposed recurrent budget represents a marginal increase of 3.24 per cent over the 2013/14 allocation, which he said was due to significant increases in basic salary and allowances.

Mr Masisi said salaries and allowances would be awarded over P33million which represents an increase of P1.5million over the 2013/14 estimates for payment of scarce skill allowances.

He said P3.7million would be used under travelling and internal transport, while P3.3million has been requested for Departmental Services for rent of additional office space to decongest office space.

Mr Masisi said training account would need P1.6million to cover allowances of trainees as the office continues to build and strengthen staff competence.

He said the estimated development budget of the Auditor General is P2.7million for the financial year 2014/15.

Under this budget, P750 000 would be used for computerisation and P2million for consultancies.

The minister said he was pleased to inform Parliament that there was a significant increase in the number of reports examined by the Public Accounts Committee.

The performance audit reports discussed included the provision of extension serives of Department of Crop Production, maintenance of secondary schools, management of public debt, implementation of the National Policy on Housing, procurement of medical equipment and surgical instruments, he said.

He said even though the PAC has set a target of examining 10 performance audit reports per year, the target would be extremely difficult to reach with the current staffing level of 14 performance auditors.

Parliament heard that in light of this, efforts to grow this function have been compromised by high attrition of staff to the private sctor.

The Auditor General, he added, has assisted in the establishment of audit committees in urban and district councils to strengthen capacity to deal with audit matters and expedite responses to audit queries which is a major challenge.

He said the restructuring of the office of the Auditor General was at an advanced stage, as a result of the passing by Parliament in August 2012 of the Public Audit Bill which came into operation in 2013. Implementation of the restructuring exercise, he said, was scheduled to commence in April 2014.

On shortage of office accommodation, the minister said efforts to evacuate the current office space with immediate effect as advised by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology has not been possible due to protracted negotiations with the Ministry of Lands and Housing to lease an alternative building in the Central Business District in Gaborone.

Minister Masisi also presented budget estimates for the Office of Ombudsman amounting to P18.3million for recurrent budget for the financial year 2014/15.

He said the proposed recurrent budget represents an increase of 16 per cent over the 2013/14 financial year.

“The increase, in the main, is attributed to provision of new posts, computer replacements and printing charges,” he said.

Under development budget, he requested for P3.7 million to set up a branch office in Maun as well as a satellite office in Tsabong to educate the public about the services of office of Ombusdman and address the issue of low public awareness on its mandate.

Earlier giving an overview of the office, Minister Masisi said Ombudsman has the mandate to investigate complaints of violations of human rights made against government ministries.

He however added that this mandate is not clear and has been a cause of contention between the Ombudsman and other entities.

‘It will be clarified, through legislative review during 2014/15,” he said.

He also reported that out of the 818 complaints received between January and December 2013, 646 cases or 79 per cent were completed during the same period compared to 61.85 per cent in the previous year.

Minister Masisi informed Parliament that there has been an improvement on their turnaround time, and that a preliminary audit of the reengineered investigation process showed that the time taken to complete cases has gone down from eight to five months.

He said in future, they intend to escalate to the point of issuing warrants of arrest and committals to imprisonment to some recalcitrant permanent secretaries and other government officials who do not cooperate with investigators.

The production of the Ombudsman Regulations was at an advanced stage and they had been reviewed internally and the next step was to present them to stakeholders and Parliament for approval, he added. ENDS