Keorapetse dismisses Masisi’s TNDP scheme

Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Dithapelo Keorapetse, has criticized the Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP) initiative, which is set to be implemented from April this year, saying it is a highly deceptive scheme calculated to not only to buy votes but also to plunder the economy at an unprecedented scale. Keorapetse said that the scheme which is President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s brain child is a ploy to repurpose the state to serve narrow interests. “There are so many unanswered questions about the TNDP. It is unclear where the government is going to get more than P64 billion in just two years when annually the development budget is about P16 billion. We have not seen major sources of revenue growing significantly. Diamond sales haven’t doubled, taxes haven’t increased dramatically and SACU receipts have also not skyrocketed. So, where is the money coming from?”, he asked. Keorapetse said government could be aiming to borrow money from regional and international financial institutions and expressed concern at the existing bad debts. “Government is already owing the World Bank, OPEC, Japan and African Development Bank amongst others. It is worrying that a country can borrow money so that its leaders can line up their pockets in kickbacks.” The LOO said that as the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) they will invoke principles under public international law on odious debt, that if Botswana Democratic Party government mortgages the country into bad and illegitimate debt where money is stolen, mismanaged and wasted. “We will argue that such debt is not enforceable and we won’t pay as the incoming government. Instead, erstwhile leaders would have to then pay,” he stressed out. The Member of Parliament for Selibe Phikwe West explained that implementation has been a problem and that no project has been completed within budget and schedule in Botswana. "It is also on very rare cases that projects are handed over without any major structural defects. So what miracle has been done to make us ready to implement P64 billion worth of projects in two years when implementing P16 billion was a nightmare. We should anticipate more litigations and complaints.” Before Keorapetse’s remarks, the Minister of State President Kabo Morwaeng had acknowledged that government has over the years experienced major challenges in project implementation, ranging from inadequate project planning, inaccurate costing, appraisal and assessment of feasibility. Morwaeng who led his cabinet and colleagues to sway Parliament into approving the TNDP said that the poor implementation has been worsened by insufficient monitoring and evaluation of projects, resulting in cost overruns, and service provision that is below standard specifications. “To ensure that the mega billions public investment projects are a success, government will use the development manager approach for project delivery, allowing for major public projects to be packaged and their implementation outsourced to private companies with requisite capacity to assist in addressing some of the capacity constraints that continue to undermine efforts towards successful project implementation.” He said that the TNDP model on its own will not be sufficient. “There is therefore an urgent need to address capacity limitations across the board,” he said. With a two year plan budget set at P64.07 billion, making it the largest development budget in Botswana’s history, TNDP will run for a period of two years covering the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years.

TheVoiceBW

Politics

Keorapetse dismisses Masisi’s TNDP scheme

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