Govt fails to pay April allowances
Gothataone Moeng | Thursday May 8, 2014 15:06
Thousands of teachers who were sent to South Africa to upgrade their Diplomas to Degrees have not been paid due to a delayed Letter of Authorisation approving the processing of the allowances
An email forwarded to the affected students, which Mmegi has seen, places the blame for the delay on the students’ sponsors.
“This serves to alert you that we will not be able to process your allowances this month, this is due to the fact that your Ministries/Sponsors have not sent us the Letter of Authorities for the 2014/2015 financial year,” the email reads.
The email, sent by an administrative clerk in the Education Section at the Botswana Consulate, Phindile Mawela says the staff have made several enquiries with the sponsors but have not received the Letter of Authorisation.
“We have communicated with them on several occasions and emphasised the importance of the matter to them, as the system we are using does not permit us to make any payments without having an [Letter of Authorisation.]
We will continue to communicate with them until we have received the required [Letter of Authorisation], and upon receipt we will be able to process your allowances,” the email continues.
A student based in Cape Town, who spoke to Mmegi on condition of anonymity said by May 7 their allowances had still not been paid even though the money is usually credited into their accounts by the 25th of the month.
Another student said when she made enquiries she was told the ministry was upgrading their computer systems for the new financial year and that that had caused a delay in the processing of their allowances.
“A lot of us have still not paid our rent. We can’t buy food, we can’t buy any toiletries or pay our transport costs,” the student said. Participants in the Tirelo Sechaba programme, which is officially known as the Botswana National Service Programme (BNSP) also started their national service on a sour note with delayed payments for their first month of service.
The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture (MYSC), which runs the programme, told the over 15,000 participants over the radio that their P500 allowances would be paid in late.
“The Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture wishes to inform all Botswana National Service Programme participants that due to some unforeseen logical challenges, payment of their monthly allowance for the month of April 2014 has been delayed.
The ministry is working around the clock to ensure that the allowance is paid starting from May 2, 2014 and a notice giving the full details about the matter will be issued through radio and SMSs to the participants on Friday morning May 2nd, 2014.
The ministry greatly apologises to the participants for this delay,” a spot announcement said.
This publication has not been able to confirm whether the allowances had been processed.
As late as yesterday, Interns in the NIP programme had not received their allowances.
According to the participants, the explanation offered to them was that the government computer system is down. The NIP is also administered under the MYSC, with participants earning P1,200 per month, with an additional P200 going into an account to be collected upon exit of the programme.