The fly in the ESP ointment

NDP 10 in particular will be remembered as a planning period in which billions of Pula were spent askew, due to poor project implementation, supervision and accountability.

The Finance ministry, as the custodian of the treasury, had noble and indeed prudent intentions at the start of NDP 10. The intention was for Botswana to spend its way out of the global recession, by raising government spending on critical public projects and thus support an economy dependent on public spending. The implementation and supervision, however, has been a ‘how-not-to’ in public spending, with bungling of major and minor projects ranging from the Morupule B power station and Sir Seretse Khama International Airport to Shakawe Senior Secondary School and Dibete Police Station.