UNDER SPENDING WORRISOME – MAKGALEMELE The Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Phillip Makgalemele says under spending by government departments is a concern as it denies people the opportunity to benefit from government programme. Speaking during a briefing on the Francistown poverty eradication projects recently, Mr Makgalemele said he was not impressed that the city’s poverty eradication committee still had P2 million unspent from the 2012/13 financial year. He implored the committee to fast track the process and assist people accordingly. Although government targeted to have eradicated abject poverty by 2017, Mr Makgalemele said he believed that it would be dealt with earlier than anticipated. Mr Makgalemele noted that although the poverty eradication programme had 45 alternative packages, the committee was free to suggest any project not listed that they feel could improve the lives of the people of Francistown. He urged the committee to assist poverty eradication beneficiaries to harvest rain water particularly that some areas were experiencing shortage of water. Earlier, the district officer development, Mr Boyce Mangole said a total of 203 projects were funded through the poverty eradication programme in the three constituencies of Francistown. Mr Mangole said in Francistown West constituency, 104 projects were funded while in Francistown East and South 40 and 59 projects were funded respectively. He said that Francistown West constituency has many projects because its residents were poverty stricken while in Francistown East the numbers were low because most of the constituents were public officers. For his part, the town clerk, Mr Lebuile Israel cited limited training slots at Francistown College of Technical and Vocational Education (FCTVE) as some factors that contributed to under spending. Mr Israel said FCTVE is the only training institution catering for beneficiaries in the northern region but noted that the council through its home economic office has started to train catering beneficiaries.The committee, he said was liaising with the private sector in view of assisting to train the poverty eradication beneficiaries in different skills. MP for Francistown East, Mr Buti Billy said the poverty eradication guidelines disadvantaged some potential beneficiaries because they required that beneficiaries should have their own plots but it has come out that most of the potential beneficiaries did not own plots. The Mayor, Ms Sylvia Muzila promised that the council political wing would support the poverty eradication committee to ensure the utilisation of the surplus by the end of the current financial year. Mr Makgalemele toured some poverty eradication projects in the Francistown East constituency. (BOPA)
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 11:45:00 +0000
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