P600 million goes missing at Education Ministry
News
Ministry of Education and Skills Development spent P600 million on yet to be established expenditure without the authority of parliament. This has in turn caused the ministry to fail to pay University of Botswana (UB) subvention and tuition fees, among other things.
The ministry which has since been split into two ministries; Ministry of Basic Education and Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology’s unexplained spending has put the future of the country’s highest learning institution in dire financial crisis. According to Chief Finance Officer from the former ministry, Olga Mutloane, at one point during the 2015/16 financial year it came to the attention of senior officials that the ministry will experience ‘budget deficit’ and sought the assistance of Ministry of Finance and Economic Development .
The ministry of finance then declined to offer MoE a lifeline and instead recommended that it seeks funds from within the institutions which fall under its auspices. Mutloane informed the Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Bodies and Enterprises recently that at that point UB was one of the institutions which had enough to sustain itself for another financial year.
“We could not ask UB to write a cheque or transfer money to us since the money was instead going to be directed to the Consolidated Fund,” she explained and added that, “We agreed instead to withhold money which was due to UB for tuition fee and subvention in order to avoid the anticipated deficient.”
Part of the agreement was that, the ministry will then at one point, in the next financial year pay back the money which was due to the UB. The ministry however defaulted on its promise and only paid part of the money a few weeks ago when it became evident that UB will have its coffers dried up by the end of year.
The chairman of the Committee, Samson Guma had told the ministry that it was being economic with the truth by suggesting that the ministry at one point was going to experience budget deficiency, something which he said is impossible. “Only government can have budget deficient, not individual ministries,” he said. “All ministries’ expenditure is something which is budgeted for and approved by parliament. You were in that deficient (state) because you had an unauthorised expenditure.”
The Tati West legislator stated that the ministry has violated the law by failing to adhere to the budget as approved by parliament. He said since the Ministry of Education’s budget including that of UB was approved by parliament, it was illegal for the ministry not to release the funds as envisaged by the approval of the budget.
“As a seconded Ministry of Finance official you have to know this,” he said. “You do not have those powers to withhold and change a budget approved by parliament.” Guma said parastatals cannot bail their parent ministries and noted the ministry can only get an additional funding through supplementary budget.
Mutloane could not divulge where the money was directed to, but concurred with Guma that the ministry performed an unauthorised expenditure. Guma said the ministry should take the blame for the confusion at the UB because of the decisions it continues to make, firstly by failing to pay tuition fee due to the university and secondly by underfunding the university contrary to the institution’s request.
Guma further suggested to UB Vice-Chancellor Professor, Thabo Fako, to be robust if he desires to be heard. He said the approach which the university is currently using will not bear fruits hence the need to change the tactics. Guma even recommended that UB should consider kicking out government sponsored students from class if government fails to pay tuition fee as it has an obligation to do so.
“If you kick out privately sponsored students for not paying their tuition fee why don’t you apply the same rules to government sponsored students,” he questioned. “You are running an institution sir, you have rendered a service and government has an obligation to pay for the services,” Guma added.
UB requires over P1 billion to cover operational costs, but in the last three years the institution has received less than what they have requested forcing it to exhaust its reserves. In the last three years, the university received P776 million, 714 million and 703 million in the financial year under review.
The institution’s Vice Chancellor, Prof Fako revealed that the financial crisis is worsened by dwindling number of students being enrolled at the institution as a result of the sponsorship cessation by government for some courses and government’s decision not to meet the budget as requested by the institution.
Fako is set to meet the minister of newly created ministry responsible for UB and other tertiary institutions, Dr Alfred Madigele. The meeting as per Fako’s revelation is to have a genuine and candid dialogue about the future of UB.
News
Local tennis team upbeat ahead of Billie Jean King cup
With almost two weeks until the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup, which will be staged in Kenya from June 12-17, 2023, the Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) ladies’ team coach, Ernest Seleke, is optimistic about reaching greater heights.
Billie Jean King Cup, or the BJK Cup, is a premier international team competition in women’s tennis, launched as the Federation Cup to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The BJK Cup is the world’s largest annual women’s international team sports competition in terms of the number of nations that compete.
The finals will feature 12 teams (Botswana, Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Seychelles, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Tunisia, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo) competing in the four round-robin groups of three. The four group winners will qualify for the semifinals, and the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup will be crowned after the completion of the knockout phase.
Closer to home, the BW Tennis team is comprised of Thato Madikwe, Leungo Monnayoo, Chelsea Chakanyuka, and Kelebogile Monnayoo. However, according to Seleke, they have not assembled the team yet as some of the players are still engaged.
“At the moment, we are depending on the players and their respective coaches in terms of training. However, I will meet up with Botswana-based players in the coming week, while the United States of America (USA) based player Madikwe will probably meet us in Kenya. Furthermore, Ekua Youri and Naledi Raguin, who are based in Spain and France respectively, will not be joining us as they will be writing their examinations,” said Seleke.
Seleke further highlighted the significance of this competition and how competitive it is. “It is a massive platform for our players to showcase their talent in tennis, and it is very competitive as countries target to get promoted to the world categories where they get to face big nations such as Spain, France, USA, and Italy. Though we are going to this tournament as underdogs because it is our second time participating, I’m confident that the girls will put in a good showing and emerge with results despite the odds,” highlighted Seleke.
Quizzed about their debut performance at the BJK Cup, he said, “I think our performance was fair considering the fact that we were newbies. We came third in our group after losing to North Macedonia and South Africa. We went on to beat Uganda, then Kenya in the playoffs. Unfortunately, we couldn’t play Burundi due to heavy rainfall and settled for the position 9/10,” he said.
For her part, team representative Leungo Monnayoo said they are working hard as they aim to do well at the tourney. “The preparations for the tourney have long begun because we practice each and every day. We want to do well, hence we need to be motivated. Furthermore, I believe in my team as we have set ourselves a big target of coming home with the trophy,” she said.
News
Pep Stores donates sanitary towels to Popagano JSS
The Guidance and Counseling unit at Popagano Junior Secondary School received a donation of 790 sanitary towels from Pep stores on Thursday.
When presenting the donation, Mareledi Thebeng, the Dinokaneng Area Manager, highlighted their belief in giving back to the community, as their existence depends on the communities they serve. Thebeng pointed out that research indicates one in four girls miss school every day due to the lack of basic necessities like sanitary towels. Therefore, as a company, they strive to assist in alleviating this situation. She expressed hope that this donation would help ensure uninterrupted learning for girls.
Upon receiving the donation on behalf of the students, Charity Sambire, the President of the Student Representative Council, expressed her gratitude. Sambire specifically thanked Pep Store for their generous gift, speaking on behalf of the students, especially the girl child.
She conveyed their sincere appreciation for Pep Store’s compassion and quoted the adage, “Blessed is the hand that gives.” Sambire expressed the students’ hope for Pep Stores’ prosperity, enabling them to continue supporting the students. As a gesture of gratitude, the students pledged to excel academically.
During her speech, Motlalepula Madome, the Senior Teacher in Guidance and Counseling, highlighted that many students at the school come from disadvantaged backgrounds where parents struggle to provide basic necessities. Consequently, some students miss school when they experience menstruation due to this lack.
Madome emphasized the significance of the donation in preventing the girl child from missing lessons and its potential to improve the school’s overall results. She expressed the school’s gratitude and expressed a desire for continued support from Pep Stores.
Popagano Junior Secondary School, situated in the Okavango District, holds the second position academically in the North West region. Despite its location, the school has been dedicated to achieving excellence since 2017
News
Botswana misses out critical PAP committee meeting
The Pan African Parliament (PAP) committee on gender, family, youth and people with disability in its sitting considered, adopted and recommended to the plenary session the preliminary report on the framework for the model law on gender equality.
According to the last week’s media release from PAP which is sitting with its various committees until June 2nd, the committee is following up the PAP initiative to draw up a model law on gender equality to enable national governments to harmonize, modernize and standardize their legislations to address local needs is set to be discussed in Plenary.
However, what is concerning is the fact that Botswana which is a member state missed the deliberations. Kgosi Mosadi Seboko who sat in the committee representing Botswana has since been ejected by parliament and this is a huge blow for a nation that is still battling equity and gender balance.
“Although PAP has no legislative powers it makes model laws for member states to adopt. PAP also develops protocols to be ratified by countries. The input of countries at Committee state is extremely critical. It now means the voice of Botswana is missing the discussions leading up to development of protocols or model laws,” said one of Botswana’s representative at PAP Dr. Kesitegile Gobotswang who is attending the current session.
While Botswana is missing, the committee meeting took place on the sidelines of the Sixth PAP second ordinary Session being held under the African Union Theme of the Year for 2023, “The Year of AfCFTA: Accelerating the Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area” in Midrand, South Africa and will run up to 2 June 2023. Chairperson of the Committee, Hon Mariam Dao-Gabala expressed satisfaction with preliminary processes undertaken so far towards the formulation of the Model Law,” a release from the PAP website reads.
“The law should be suitable to all countries whatever the predominant culture or religion is. The aim is to give an opportunity to women to participate in the economic, political and social development of the continent. Women are not well positioned and face a lot of obstacles. We are introducing the idea of equity in the Law because we cannot talk about equality without equity,” said Hon Mariam Dao-Gabala in the press statement.
The release has stated that among issues to be covered by the Model Law is the migratory movements of women. The Committee proffered that this has to be addressed at the continental level to ensure that migrant women enjoy all their rights and live with dignity in their destination country. The members of the Gender Committee undertook consultations to consolidate the contributions of the various stakeholders that will be the logical framework format for the Model Law.