Huge deficit in Phikwe projects' financing

MQONDISI DUBE
Correspondent | Friday July 11, 2008 00:00

Selebi-Phikwe Finance and General Purposes Committee chairperson, Molosiwa Molosiwa said when briefing the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Baledzi Gaolathe on Monday that after the completion of the town's first draft UDP III, the overall project cost for the entire seven-year plan period amounted to over P830 million.

However, Molosiwa said the Ministry of Local Government later issued a ceiling of P230 million for the entire UDP III/National Development Plan (NDP) 10.

'This means that government is committed to financing only 30 percent of our proposals hence the initial proposals had to be curtailed by more than 70 percent to fit into the allocation from the Ministry of Local Government,' he said.

He added that the Selebi-Phikwe Town Council has taken into consideration the fact that government resources are limited and are insufficient to cover everything. As a result, Selebi-Phikwe has drawn up a strategy for the projects that could not fit within the government budget during the seven-year plan period.

He said the strategy will include strengthening strategic partnerships and encouraging community participation in the development process. Molosiwa promised Gaolathe that the local authority will continue to exercise due prudence in the utilisation of scarce resources.

He said a challenge faced during the preparation of UDP III was the failure of some government departments to provide requisite information for proper planning. 'In cases where that was attempted, the information was not useful at local level as the data was aggregated hence representing national ceilings,' Molosiwa said.

Despite the setbacks, he said Selebi-Phikwe has registered considerable improvement in project implementation.

He cited the provision of infrastructure in Botshabelo, the servicing of plots at Mekoro, the upgrading of the eight km Independence road to dual carriageway and the construction of a 32km storm water drainage system at Western area. Molosiwa said some projects like the construction of a bus rank, have not taken off due to delays in the preparation and approval of project memoranda.

He added that the introduction of the project management information system contributed to the delay in that officers at both ministry and local authority level are struggling to familiarise themselves with the new system.

Molosiwa requested that government should, in future, facilitate comprehensive training for officers expected to use the system to avoid confusion, which culminate in delays in service delivery and project implementation.

He said Selebi-Phikwe has spent 10 percent of this year's total budget of P9 million. '(The) Council has however geared itself for expeditious implementation of projects as bills of quantities for most projects are complete while some tenders have already been evaluated and will soon be awarded,' Molosiwa said. He said inflation has affected project implementation especially because of the time lag between project conception and inception.

He said the project review exercise is done in August but funding is only available the following June. 'This scenario makes it difficult for local authorities to come up with realistic cost estimates and in most cases, when the initial cost estimate can no longer accommodate the entire project, local authorities are compelled to scale down the projects.'

He called for the revamping of the project cycle to compete against commodity prices. Molosiwa appealed to Gaolathe to speed up the economic diversification process of Selebi-Phikwe.

He said if no immediate action is taken, businesses and skilled individuals will leave the town before the mine closes. Gaolathe said NDP 10 is a seven-year plan which has been deliberately designed to end in 2016 in a bid to accelerate achievements of Vision 2016.

He said the government is results-oriented and  is not necessarily concerned by how much a local authority spends. 'It is not how much you spend but emphasis should be on service delivered to the people.

We are looking at a planning strategy that is results oriented,' Gaolathe said. He said Botswana has made strides in infrastructural development and emphasis in the ND Plan 10 will shift to maintenance. 'During NDP 10, we will be presiding over an economy that continues to grow.

The recurrent budget will grow at a faster rate than the development budget,' he said. He revealed that the recurrent budget will grow by 12.5 percent, while the development budget will rise by eight percent at current prices.