After previously admitting that the Government Accounting and Budgeting System (GABS) was dysfunctional, the Minister of Finance, Peggy Serame this week reported that the system is back on track and fully operational.
In an update to Members of Ntlo Ya Dikgosi, Serame said a permanent solution had been found thanks to the collaborative efforts between her ministry and that of Communications, Knowledge, and Technology.
In November last year, the minister told Parliament that statistics showed that GABS had been significantly dysfunctional for extended periods resulting in serious performance challenges. The problem was largely in part due to the system being excessively slow to the point of failing to process normal operational requests, Serame had said.
"I am pleased to announce that since January 15, 2024, to date the system is now open to all eligible users and they can process their transactions at their convenience," Serame assured this week.
Serame was responding to a question by Kgosi Ledimo (Maun region) Ledimo who sought to know what the minister was doing to ensure that the GABS system was normalised. The minister cited the introduction of rotational access to the system, with priority given to the revenue services and the banks among the interventions made to restore the GABS system. "By so doing, we were able to ensure continuity of the Government service towards clearing the backlog of supplier payments and collection of revenue and noticed an increase in payments made," she said.
The minister explained that the last system upgrade was conducted in 2018. "GABS had until last year August not experienced any major performance and reliability issues and because of this, preparations for the next upgrade are ongoing and expected to be completed before the end of March 2025," she revealed.
