Mmegi

A P24bn budget miscalculation

Missing the mark: Serame’s expected revenues were significantly off the actual outturn PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO
Missing the mark: Serame’s expected revenues were significantly off the actual outturn PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO

The 2024-25 budget missed its revenue forecast by P24.9bn, the biggest miscalculation ever. This year’s optimistic revenue target of P75.5bn, if reached, will be the highest ever but all signs are that another heavy miscalculation has been made, write TIMOTHY LEWANIKA & MBONGENI MGUNI

For the financial year 2024-2025 technocrats at the Ministry of Finance missed their revenue projections by P24.89 billion a staggering miss for people who live and breathe macroeconomic numbers for a living.

Preliminary figures shared by the Minister of Finance in February showed that the deficit shot above the forecast 3.2% of GDP to nine percent, another big jump in numbers that cast doubt over the work of the country’s technocrats or the political head honchos that are superiors to these technocrats.

Editor's Comment
The State apparatus must be sanitised

When the State cannot rely on its own machinery to pursue suspected wrongdoing, repairing that machinery must become a national priority.The establishment of a Special Investigations and Asset Recovery Task Force may help government respond to the immediate challenge. However, Botswana cannot afford to leave the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) struggling whilst building...

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