This came after the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bobirwa constituency, Taolo Lucas, asked how the government plans to reform district councils to give them more autonomy and enable them to generate income for self-sustenance. Motshegwa explained that the policy aims to shift from a hybrid deconcentrated governance model to a fully devolved system with improved service delivery. “The policy seeks to promote equitable and sustainable development,” Motshegwa added. “It will transfer decision-making powers and resources to local governments while empowering citizens to participate in planning, financing, implementation, and evaluation of local development.” He also noted that local authorities face challenges in generating self-sustaining income. The MLGTA Minister said these challenges are due to ineffective fiscal and public financial management systems. Motshegwa said. “Local governments rely on low-yielding revenue sources and intergovernmental fiscal transfers, which account for almost 90% of their funding,” he stated.
To address this, Motshegwa stated that his ministry has developed a Draft Fiscal Decentralisation Strategy. “The strategy supports resource mobilisation and ensures efficient and equitable use of funds,” he explained. Furthermore, he said it focuses on four pillars which include assigning expenditure responsibilities, allocating revenue sources, designing intergovernmental transfers, and structuring sub-national borrowing. Through these efforts, Motshegwa said the government aims to empower local authorities to become financially independent and improve service delivery across the country. Recently during a press conference, the minister informed the media that the ministry’s current strategy and transformation plan is aimed at putting local government firmly in line with the new government commitments. He also said they are on the right track towards achieving Vision 2036 and that over time the ministry will realise transformation by implementing six interrelated strategic objectives. He, however, said the six constitute the fundamental pillars of this transformation plan including reorganising the ministry to improve its organisational performance including monitoring and evaluation, successfully implementing Phase 1 of the Decentralisation Policy. Motshegwa said this will also develop and implement a local government digital transformation strategy and plan, to play a catalytic role in building inclusive, resilient, and sustainable local economies.
He added this will provide effective and efficient local services and infrastructure, and provide inclusive, shock-responsive, and adaptive social protection services. Moreover, he said to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in delivering the above programmes, they need to look into their current local governance system and change it. He continued: “We mainly operate with a deconcentrated decentralisation model and this has proven to be ineffective as through it, local governments have no complete control of their development and are at the mercy of central government ministries.” In addition, he said it is therefore imperative and urgent that they adopt a decentralisation by devolution model of local governance. He also stressed that this will give councils autonomy and room to take charge and make decisions to promote local economic development and partner with the private sector to raise revenues for developments.
Still, on the matter, he said decentralisation has been the most discussed and contested public sector reform in Botswana over the past 30 years. Motshegwa revealed that it is a powerful tool for realising the objectives of Vision 2036 and transformation. He also said a draft policy is ready and will be submitted to Cabinet this month and subsequent debate in the next Parliament sitting. The minister further said he is confident that decentralisation by devolution as a governance policy will improve the quality of governance, the effectiveness, and efficiency of service delivery in Botswana to contribute to inclusive growth, and stimulate a mindset change in public service delivery.
