Auditor-General laments state of schools

This is despite the fact that the ministry had disbursed P703 million to finance maintenance and expansion of educational facilities at 33 junior secondary schools in the financial years 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. As of December 20, 2019, P637 million had been spent on the projects which represented 91% of the total budget. However, according to Auditor-General, all the schools visited had already utilised more than 83% of their allocations. “In spite of the considerable expenditure incurred at the time, the educational facilities and staff houses were generally in a poor physical state across the regions, because of pending works and defects.

This could be an indication that the department did not ensure proper and adequate evaluation of pending works and defects. As a result, the remaining 17% of the individual budgets was not enough to fund the outstanding works as per the bills of quantities and the snag lists prepared for the defects liability period,” the audit state. “The department incurred cost overruns in the region of P16 million on five projects (Gaborone West- P1.3m, Matsheng P1.2m, Tshwaragano P6.3m, Denjebuya P1.5m, John Nswazwi P5.1m and Oodima P0.7m), emanating from the prolonged contracts period. None of the projects was executed within the 12-month period stipulated in the performance contract.