24 Nov 2024

Government is aware of the general public concern on lapses in the Public Investment Programme (PIP).

This was said by Vice President, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe, who is also the Minister of Finance when responding to a parliamentary question on Wednesday.

Mr Gaolathe said in that light, the incoming administration was determined to put in place management practices, cultures, processes and personnel to build a world class Public Investment Programme that was efficient, effective, corruption-free and high impact in a way that would transform the economy and society.

“Government provides annual capital budgets as part of the Public Investment Programme to support the delivery of key public services,” he said.

The Vice President said that the PIP by nature entailed investment spending that aimed at stimulating economic growth and opening job opportunities.

He said that his ministry was also cognisant of the challenges of waste, mismanagement and corruption around implementation of the national budget, and that government continued to invest efforts in curtailing such challenges.

He however, acknowledged persistence of the challenges despite the efforts, forcing further interventions such as commissioning the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to undertake a Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA).

“The assessment focused on the quality of infrastructure and evaluated the procedures, tools, decision making, as well as monitoring processes used by governments to provide infrastructure assets and services to the public,” he said.

Mr Gaolathe said the results showed that Botswana rated similar to the average of Emerging Markets Economies and Sub Saharan countries with an efficiency gap estimated at 37 per cent in 2017 and 31 per cent in 2023.

“This means that Botswana’s capital stock attained a two-thirds efficiency in infrastructure investment output and 31 per cent of that investment was unproductive due to either wastage, mismanagement or corruption,” he said. Mr Gaolathe was responding after the Member of Parliament for Bobirwa, Mr Taolo Lucas asked whether he was aware of reports that over 30 per cent of the country›s development budget was lost to waste, mismanagement and corruption.

Mr Lucas also requested the minister to state the forms, types and nature of wastage, mismanagement and corruption and whether it was true that government tender prices were inflated to make provision for kickbacks to government officials and the ruling elite.

He also requested measures proposed or in place to deal with waste, mismanagement and corruption. Ends