Government is a bad payer – MPs
Parley approves over P2.7 billion for MFED MPs plead with Serame to speed up payments process
Members of Parliament from both sides of the aisle including cabinet members were united on Tuesday as they took to the floor pleading with government to speed up payments for small businesses or see them close shop.
In their response to the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Peggy Serame’s presentation of the financial year 2022/ 2023 Recurrent and Development Budget proposals for her ministry, all MPs were in agreement that instead of helping Batswana small businesses to prosper, some government ministries and departments often take time to pay such businesses for the services rendered.
Accordingly, government arrangement is to settle all bills in a period of 30 days, but departments throughout the country often take more than 90 days some even up to six months.
The MPs argued that generally government is a bad payer as there is a trend where departments delay in paying private businesses, as well as paying retiring servants their pensions after retiring.
Botswana Guardian has it in good authority that in their explanation, Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund ( BPOPF) has at some stage claimed that their delay in payment is caused by the fact that they first have to do a research as they receive some of the files with missing information from Alexander Forbes - who used to handle civil servants pensions. Parliamentarians said their constituents or business houses who often complain about the delay in their payments are often told that the delay is at the ministry.
Serame dismissed that as being economic with the truth by civil servants. She told the house that they should tell their constituents to always demand evidence whenever such an excuse is advanced. Parliament however, agreed to Serame’s proposal and gave her ministry the sum of over P2.7 billion. Serame had proposed a budget allocation of P2 701 254 923 which represents an increase of 110 percent over the Financial Year 2021/ 2022 approved budget of P1 283 519 024.
She said that from this amount the recurrent budget amounts to P2 389 836 89 or 88.5 percent, while the Development Budget amounts to P311 418 033 or 11.5 percent. She further asked parliament to approve a total recurrent budget of P2 389 836 890 for the financial year 2022/ 2023, an increase of 146.2 percent over the revised recurrent budget of P971 424 720 for Financial Year 2021/ 2022. She said the increase is mainly due to an amount of P1 442 946 930 for Tertiary Education Financing ( Tuition Fees) account, which has been transferred from Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology to her ministry. This accounts for 53.4 percent of the total recurrent budget. Further that the sum of P2 007 191 780, which is 84 percent of the proposed recurrent budget, will be allocated to the ministry headquarters.
She said this amount represents an increase of P1 428 913 710 or 247.1 percent over the approved budget of 2021/ 2022 financial year. And, that the proposed allocation to headquarters also includes an amount of P214 550 000 as provision for subventions to parastatals falling under the Ministry.
The proposed budget for subventions to Public Enterprises is at P105 000 000 for Statistics Botswana ( SB), P58 100 000 for Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board ( PPADB), Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis ( BIDPA) P18 300 000, P15 550 000 for Non- Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority ( NBFIRA), Botswana Accountancy Oversight Authority ( BAOA) P11 800 000 and P5 800 00 for Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants ( BICA).
Serame said BURS has submitted a budget proposal of P1 264 045 991 for their development and recurrent needs for the year 2022/ 2023. She said out of this P839 275 991 or 66 percent for recurrent and P424 770 000 or 34 percent for development to cater for ongoing and new development projects for border security, ICT, infrastructure and others, compared to P695 677 000 and P271 738 460 for 2021/ 2022 recurrent and development, respectively. Serame also requested P357 182 200 or 15 percent of the recurrent budget.
While for the Office of Accountant General’s Department – Organisation, she requested the sum of P3 564 360 or 1 percent compared to the approved budget for 2021/ 2022.
She made requests of P25 462 910 or 1 percent of the recurrent budget for the Financial Intelligence Agency – Department, saying this represents a decrease of P2 437 180 or 8.7 percent compared to the approved budget for 2021/ 2022 financial year. She said on the recurrent revenue, the Ministry is estimated to collect the sum of P57 981 845 900 for the financial year 2022/ 23. Serame said the proposed revenue collection represents an increase of P484 263 280 or 0.84 percent compared to the revised estimate of P57 497 582 620 for financial year 2021/ 2022.
The major contributing revenue items include, VAT Revenue and SACU Revenue which represents 24 percent and 19.25 percent of the proposed revenue estimate respectively.
Serame told Parliament that for the financial year 2022/ 2023, she request for the approval of a sum of P311 418 033 for development budget for her Ministry. She said the proposed allocation represents a decrease of P5 176 271 or 1.63 percent compared to the revised budget of P316 594 304 for the financial year 2021/ 2022.
She said proposed budget will be shared among the Ministry’s projects as follows: MFED Computerization at P33 518 033 Statistical Surveys and Studies at P187 600 000, MFED Consultancies at P37 200 000 and MFED Infrastructure at P53 100 000.