About P6.4m industrial machines idle
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday July 31, 2023 06:00
This revelation came out when the Permanent Secretary (PS) for Ministry of State President Goitsemang Morekisi updated the committee that the programme is not doing well contrary to expectation.
The committee also learnt that the Ministry acquired some industrial machines in 2016, specifically for industrial use at a cost of P6.4 million. The assets were distributed to various districts, with the instruction to form industry-specific groups. Morekisi said the audit sampled seven districts which had been allocated nine machines, out of which only two were operational. She said seven of the nine distributed to the sampled areas were not operational.
She said the majority of the machines were running smoothly until four years when they started to experience frequent breakdowns, some of which were uneconomical to repair.
She said where replacement parts are no longer available in the market, the machines will be recommended for boarding. The PS said the industrial machines were bought after they had identified the need. The issue did not go well with some PAC committee members who wanted to know whether the Ministry for State President does ever review the programmmes such as this one and their performances. PAC chairperson Wynter Mmolotsi wanted to know if some of the poverty eradication programmes yield desired results in terms of targeted poverty alleviation. Mmolotsi also wanted to know if the machines were working when they were bought and whether the proper procedure was followed. “Were these machines tested before and what happened with the parts that were missing?” Mmolotsi said.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Gaborone Central, Mangwegape Healy also wanted to know if those machines were under warranty or not. “The government is putting a lot of money into some of these projects to assist people and to improve their lives. Is proper supervision done on these projects and was an assessment done before? It is sad to find out that we have invested in something that did not work,” Healy said. The Nata/Gweta MP Paulson Majaga said he is worried that only a few projects of poverty eradication have not collapsed while the majority had collapsed. “Those who had taken small stock are doing well.
Those who had taken pots are not doing well as they make money only when they are at events. Events are rare and many people have those pots. Backyard gardening has not yielded fruits at all because of lack of water,” Majaga said. He also pleaded with the Ministry that they should tell people that the programme for poverty eradication has changed or it is no longer existing. When responding to some of the questions and comments made by MPs, Morekisi stressed that the machines were bought while working and the missing parts of some of the devices were brought. “We understand that some of the machines were not used after they were bought since there was no place to keep them.
They were under warranty only for a year thereafter; we had to fix the breakups. The manufacturers are not responsible to fix any problems after the warranty time had lapsed,” she said. It was also revealed that the machines were bought through direct procurement from a South African company. Some of the machines are the ones doing pullets and fences amongst others.
However, Morekisi said the poverty eradication programme now falls under the new Entrepreneurship Ministry and it has since been reformed and it would not run the way it used to. She revealed that those whose business ideas have collapsed and the assessment shows that they still need help will be placed under social welfare for the food basket. She said assessment and mitigation were done in some projects. She continued: “We have done hand over to the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and officers who have been coordinating the program have also moved to the new Ministry. It is included in our Ministry because all the old projects were falling under our Ministry.” Morekisi assured PAC members that they would notify the public about the modified poverty eradication programme and that it has been moved to the new Ministry of Entrepreneurship.