NEDC budgetary priorities questioned
Pini Bothoko | Tuesday February 9, 2016 12:39
Most of the councillors felt that the projects that will be carried out during the 2016-2017 period are less significant and would not add value to people’s lives. They added that they wanted the council to carry out projects that are permanent.
The councillors raised their concerns after the coordinator of Ipelegeng said only bush clearing; grass cutting, litter picking and green scorpions will be budgeted for in the coming financial year.
Councillors also did not welcome the decision that was taken by cabinet that the 2016-2017 development budget should be cut by 10 percent across all the ministries. They pointed out that the move would affect the district’s development budget.
The dejected councillors said that their district is behind with developments and has been depending on Ipelegeng to carry out minor projects.
The Ipelegeng programme coordinator, Victor Masunga had explained that for the 2016-2017 financial year the Ipelegeng programme would not carry out any other projects due to the limited budget.
Masunga said the programme‘s main core functions are the maintenance of public facilities, environmental cleanliness and minor construction, but for this financial year the programme does not have enough funds to address these functions.
“We have P16,076,361.08 as our budget this financial year and doing the breakdown of our expenditure we will not be able to carry out any other projects besides grass cutting, bush clearing and litter picking,” said Masunga.
He said out of their budget P10,654, 640 being the large share will cover unskilled labour costs, P887,766.89 for salaries and wages, P3,118,080 for feeding costs, P310,000 for material costs and P220,000 for skilled labour costs.
“The remaining budget will cater for other expenses like terminal benefits, subsistence allowance, housing allowance, overtime, protective clothing, tools, stationery, telephone bills, recession relief allowance to mention but a few. This will cover almost all of our budget therefore there will be no other projects to be carried out,” said Masunga.
He said they are aware that the communities through their Village Development Committees (VDC) have already proposed their development projects as usual, but the programme does not have sufficient funds to carry out such projects.
When commenting the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) councillor, Mbiganyi Smarts of Mosojane ward proposed that the council should not accept the Ipelegeng budget because it caters for useless projects of grass cutting that cannot benefit the district.
“This is a joke. How can a district lagging behind in developments like this, have such a huge amount for grass cutting? We have been depending on Ipelegeng to carry out minor development projects that the council is failing to address, but it’s a concern to be told this,” said Smarts.
Moroka village councillor, Egbert Tshandu proposed that the council write a letter to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MoLGRD) expressing concern over this low budget and also ask for extra funds from the general funds to address the district’s development projects.
Despite their displeasure towards the budget, the majority of councillors shared and supported Tshandu’s sentiments to carry on with the budget, but suggested that the council should write a letter to the ministry asking for extra funds to implement their development projects.