Morwaeng slams his own Government
Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng says the country has the ever-present problem of poor performing parastatals that continue to gobble government funds.
For years the government has spoken about rationalisation but ended up increasing the number of SOEs. A look at the parastatals’ financial performance, reveals that more than 70 percent goes to paying staff salaries.
Even more vexing, according to Morwaeng, “they do not even employ a lot of people.” Morwaeng told Parliament when presenting the Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP) that the salaries in the SOEs even rival the pay in profit-making companies in the private sector.
“If only the higher salaries in SOEs translated to economic benefits. However, that is sadly the case as most still rely on government interventions. But of course government is to blame for some of these things.
“Just for example, the Botswana Accountancy Oversight Authority (BAOA) flagged a lot of SOEs for bad governance ranging from weak boards, failure to publish financial results on time, delays in appointing CEOs among others,” the Minister said, adding that nothing seems to be done.
Morwaeng pointed out that zero action is being taken against these bad players. Instead, "we reward them by giving them more money," he said.
“But we should uphold them to the highest key performance indicators. How do we explain that the Gambling Authority was established in 2012 but yet there is still no lottery? It’s not only the Gambling Authority but many other SOEs.
“The value of the money spent on these SOEs could have been used elsewhere to create jobs. Another issue we must look at and act on is government tenders. It partly explains why we have failed to harness entrepreneurship.”
The minister told Parliament that tenders have become easy money with little value added. He stated that not only is government over paying in most cases, but it ends up bearing the costs of failure by these companies to create jobs.
“The theme for this Second TNDP is 'Towards a High Income Economy: Transformation Now, Prosperity Tomorrow'. It is a reflection of the urgent need for change," Morwaeng said.
He added that the story of Botswana’s transformation from the world’s poorest country to a middle income country status is well known, adding that Botswana has enjoyed immense successes. However, the challenges facing the country are increasingly becoming complex and threaten to reverse the gains.
He posited that no matter how one looks at it, this speaks to failure in all fronts, considering that “we actually have some of the best policies and we know what has to be done.”
Morwaeng who is also Member of Parliament for Molepolole South said what concerns him the most is how the country has missed golden opportunities in the past by failing to implement.