Analysis paralysis and the approaching fiscal storm
Friday, May 23, 2025 | 1370 Views |
Raising the alarm: Mogae was amongst the earliest Finance Ministers to signal serious concerns about the undiversified economy
The gap between knowing what to do and doing it, has been the proverbial thorn in the side of public sector policymakers and the reforms they have attempted to make over the decades since the discovery of diamonds.
For those tracking the numbers, the current fiscal challenge is not about the past months. The fiscal crisis now manifesting in reports of government delaying to settle some payments, parastatals postponing paydays for employees and rising public debt, can be seen as far back as a decade ago, when mineral revenues entered a downward slide.
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...