SHHA was established with the aim of providing affordable housing for low-income groups.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands and Housing, Tsaone Thebe, told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Gaborone yesterday that the decision to move SHHA to BHC was taken after it was realised that some councils could not account for money that never reached the intended beneficiaries of the programme. Thebe said in 2008 and 2009, some councils that she did not name asked for funding but the money did not reach its intended beneficiaries and could not be accounted for.
However, there was never a formal study to determine if BHC was the best candidate for the job or why councils could not account for the money. "We only wanted to find someone who would be responsible for construction," Thebe said. She admitted that, that should have been done, especially since the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning was already complaining about unaccounted for money that councils kept asking for. In her opinion the P60,000 threshold for the programme is not adequate for construction of a house, but their assessments had shown that it was adequate for councils.
