Makgato’s ministry owes workers P26 million

Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs owes its officers overtime amounting to P26 million.This was revealed by Minister Dorcas Makgato when addressing the media in Gaborone recently. Makgato said the workers are owed overtime of as far back as 2013. She revealed that her ministry is one of those whose budget has been low over the years.

She said it is time they go back to the drawing boards when drafting their budget. According to Makgato most of the employees owed are those deployed at border posts around the country. The minister revealed that in the current financial year her ministry got P375 million.“Out of that P200 million goes to salaries and I am only left with P175 million to cover for operations. This is a worrying concern for me as the minister. It is always difficult to avoid overtime for employees at border post because we want to give service to our customers,” said Makgato.

She explained that when they do budgeting in November this year she will ensure that everything is started from zero. The minister revealed that the workers have pleaded with her that as she asks for money to improve service delivery at the ministry she should not forget that they are being owed overtime. Makgato indicated that her wish is for the overtime to be paid to those that are owed.

She would not want service to be compromised because people are owed overtime that they have worked for. “I need my officers to be motivated in the work. This is a very crucial ministry in our country. So the work force should not be demolarised to give service.

As our tagline speaks for itself, we do not want to be the ones frustrating their customers but rather be facilitators. That is what I would love to see happen and we can achieve that if our officers are motivated. I am happy that so far even though they are owed they have not failed to give service to our customers”, she said.

Government has decided to cut its overtime bill by ensuring that not every public servant benefit from overtime. Ministries have been given the responsibilities of managing the overtime bill to ensure that the overtime bill does not become a burden to government. Botswana Federation of Public Private and Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) has expressed concern at the rate at which government deals with the matter of overtime for public servants. The federation has argued that some public servants are cheated for hours that they have worked and others are being given off days instead of being paid.