Has Gaolathe stopped the spending haemorrhage? :: Mmegi Online

Expectations on Monday were that Botswana’s fiscal planners would not just apply the brakes but rather pull the handbrake on the speed of government spending. But it is clear they actually only took their feet off the accelerator of spending, writes TIMOTHY LEWANIKA

Anyone who listened to Minister of Finance Ndaba Gaolathe’s statement in Parliament last year, on the state of the public coffers would have bet with their lives that the 2025–2026 budget would be a lean affair compared to the historic P102 billion spending splash by former minister Peggy Serame for the 2024–2025 financial year. Instead, Gaolathe plans to spend P97 billion in the upcoming financial year, P4 billion more than what the Finance Ministry expects will spent when the 2024–2025 financial year ends on March 31.

In other words, the P102 billion budget approved last February was not spent and instead, the latest estimates is that by March 31, the actual spending will have reached P93.4 billion. Gaolathe is proposing to spend P97 billion by comparison.

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