Embassies� shock P5,000 annual budget to market Botswana
Gothataone Moeng | Wednesday June 4, 2014 16:09
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard yesterday that while the promotion of Botswana abroad and the attraction of investment is a core mandate, most of the missions run on a shoestring budget.
Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Lapologang Lekoa told PAC that even the P5,000 budget for promotional activities “is a big improvement and a recent introduction”.
“In the last three years, we have managed to get more resources specifically for promotional activities. For the first time, our missions have a specific vote for promotional activities.
Before, we had to scrape from other resources,” he said.
He said the budget was tight despite the costly business environments in which embassies work in economies with stronger currencies and comparatively higher prices.
“At the stroke of a pen, we lose P26 million when we convert our budget to foreign currencies,” Lekoa said yesterday.
However, he was reluctant to concede that the limited resources prevent the ministry from promoting Botswana and pursuing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
PAC members questioned whether the meagre resources allowed his ministry to ‘aggressively’ pursue FDI and what he is doing to push the agenda. He replied that the ministry works in a ‘value-chain’ approach with other stakeholders who have been tasked with attracting FDI such as the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).
“We have agreed to streamline our activities to avoid duplication. Just by agreeing that we will work together, we have crossed a big bridge,” he said.
Pursuing and attracting FDI has traditionally been one of government’s economic priorities, as successive executives have sought to diversity the economy away from its dependency on mining.
Meanwhile, the PAC heard that in the 2012-2013 financial year, some missions racked up unauthorised expenditure of up to P4.5 million. These include missions in Switzerland, South Africa, Australia, India, United Kingdom and Brazil.
Lekoa explained that some of the over-expenditure was due to the missions using the manual ledger system in their accounting books, which resulted in the late discovery of over-expenditure. “I can assure this committee that over-expenditure due to the manual system will never happen again, as we are equipping all our missions with the GABS accounting system. We have equipped 11 so far,” he explained.