The Assistant Minister of Local Government Setlhabelo Modukanele has expressed concern about councils’ failure to deliver services and successfully implement critical projects despite a considerable amount of investment made on them.
Modukanele was addressing a consultative meeting attended by the ministry’s personnel serving at eight local authorities of Maun, Chobe, Ghanzi, Charleshill, Tutume, Boteti and Sowa to appreciate progress made on implementation of various government programs and projects.
The meeting comprised of engineers, technical officers, economic planners, social and development officers as well as Ipelegeng coordinators. Participating local authorities updated the minister on their respective projects.
Modukanele said the public was losing patience on why councils are unable to successfully implement critical projects well in time, despite a considerable amount of investment made into such projects across the country.
“As highly trained professionals, architects, planners, developers, engineers, technicians and artisans, you are expected to play an important role in the socio-economic development of our nation, especially Botswana’s aspirations to attain high income status by year 2036,” he challenged them.
Modukanele further challenged officials to identify and address existing and emerging challenges that hinder decision-making processes as the first step towards progress and for them to equally embrace and adopt new priorities and methods in their projects to ensure their seamless implementation.
He admitted that their effort as government to respond to the growing needs of people in the delivery of services and projects have been fraught with implementation challenges therefore urged officials to pause and assess their performance and efforts in achieving their strategic objectives.
He said these challenges, have nothing to do with funding or availability of resources, but rather ineptitude on the part of the implementers, leading to delays and substandard execution of projects, despite considerable amount of investment in infrastructure development.
“To an average Motswana, the sentiment is that, if the right steps are taken immediately, there is no reason why we cannot achieve our dream of promoting sustainable livelihoods and development to truly transform Botswana,” he said.
Meanwhile, officials were implored to strengthen local governance by fighting corruption in every means possible. Modukanele indicated that corruption has over the years hindered this country from achieving their goals starting from the local authorities level to the ministry level therefore urged all not to tolerate it.
According to him, the ministry objectives and pillars can only be achieved through a robust stakeholder engagement plan to promote communication, education and public awareness; promote social inclusion through the implementation of national social protection framework among others.
