Africa-Press – Botswana. The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has secured funds to set up fire stations in 10 district councils, including Tonota.
Presenting a proposed development budget for Tonota District council which stands at over P63 million during a special full council meeting, the Acting Chief Finance and Development Officer, Ms Goitsemang
Matlhodi, said implementation plans had been drawn and expectation was that the fire station should be operational in April 2025.
He said the development budget was meant to implement some projects in the district and the amount does not include funding for construction of three new primary schools as only budget provision was made for design and supervision which has not been completed to date.
She explained that construction of schools at Tonota West to the tune of P1 865 300 million, at Shashemooke (same amount) and at Borolong (same amount) will go ahead as planned once the designs were complete, as rationalisation will be done at ministry level.
She indicated that council was allocated P2 455 754.50 for backlog eradication, adding that the Council was funded at an amount of P1 200 000.00 in 2023/2024 which to date has not been disbursed from the ministry. She said the project was awarded in January 2024 such entailed construction of classroom block at Rauwe primary school was ongoing at 20 per cent.
“This therefore means available funds for 2024/2025 was P 1 254 754.50 and council management recommends that priority be given to staff housing as classrooms and toilet blocks were prioritised in the past,” Ms Matlhodi added.
Presenting the recurrent budget of P121 025 070, the chairperson of the district finance Committee, councillor Shima Balotlhanyi said the budget presented a few challenges that need to be addressed.
“The total budget for Tonota District Council stands at P121 025 073 compared to P99,916,600.00 of the current financial year, an increase of P21 108 473, which is attributable to terminal benefits for councilors, salaries and allowances adjustments for councilors, VDC allowances increase and five percent salary increase for officers,” he added.
He said one of the challenges was that the transfer in Mathangwane and Matsitama from Tutume District came at a cost, adding that the parent ministry did not consider this fact.
Cllr Balotlhanyi said stationery for pupils in primary schools remained a challenge even in the coming year as the Tonota District Council needed an amount of P6 million to fully provide stationery as per set standards. He said council only managed to set aside P2 022 750 for this item whilst at the same time there been an increase in sitting allowances.
Councillor Balotlhanyi explained that the prevailing financial situation was that the country was recovering from COVID-19 pandemic, and that the Revenue Support Grant (RSG) has not been growing for the past five years.
He therefore said the council was committed to collect P3 236 290 which was three per cent of the total budget from different income votes to augment the RSG. He implored members to come up with new avenues to increase the council’s revenue base.
He said the budget was consumed by personnel emoluments at a total of P87 995 35 or 72 per cent.
“This therefore means only 28 percent of the budget will be used as follows; running expenses 6.3 percent, establishment expenses 7.5 percent and special expenses 13.5 percent,” he said.
Clr Balotlhanyi also said the recurrent budget included handyman budget for all primary schools, relief of destitute persons and provision for security services, just to mention a few.
Regarding departmental allocation, he said, the human resources and administration had the largest share of P25 220 450 or 20.83 percent of the total budget.
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