Finance ministry asks for PSP’s intervention on delayed projects

The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning has written a letter to the Permanent Secretary to the President, Carter Morupisi asking him to intervene in finding out why some projects that have been funded over the years have not been implemented.

The ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Solomon Sekwakwa disclosed this when appearing before to members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday. The finance PS did not mention specific projects that were funded but never carried out.

However, Sekwakwa did not also disclose the amount of money involved in the projects in question. “There are other delayed projects and this is a norm across all ministries,” he said. In addition one the Accounting Officers from the Finance ministry suggested that the PAC be given the mandate to call units responsible for such projects and question them on the delay of delivery.

For his part, PAC Member and Tati East legislator, Guma Moyo wondered why the ministry has not received a response from the PSP, since the letter was delivered in December 2015.  “There should be a response,” Moyo said. The Ministry of Agriculture has a lot funded projects, but the output especially to economy is still low, Moyo said as a matter of fact. In response, Sekwakwa answered by stating the sector’s performance was performing satisfactorily.

According to data from Statistics Botswana the sector contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the three months leading up to December 2015 was at P801, 9 million. This is a sharp increase compared to the same period last year of P787, 8 million.