UDC should extend TNDP by another year

– Cancel overpriced tenders and suspend projects that can wait

– Downsize bloated ministries, empower districts, build export led economy

ONALENNA SELOLWANE*

The UDC is now the legitimate bearer of the mantle of managing the state on behalf of ALL Batswana. It has two groups of detractors it doesn’t need: the noisy praisesingers who add zero value in ideas, and those loudly ululating at every mistep taken while also adding zero value to what this nation needs to do.

What UDC needs is robust, constructive critism and new ideas from every quarter of our fair nation.

The new government has inherited huge governance deficits from past administrations that require urgent reversal. Instead of downsizing the bloated government structure and introducing efficient budget allocations, the public admin of the past two decades have allowed inefficient tendering systems and a money guzzling bureaucracy to bleed public coffers dry.

The last BDP parliament was grossly remiss in approving budgets managed on deficit financing and a drastic draw down on savings. Similarly, the admins presiding over the peak years of diamond revenues were remiss in not ringfencing savings and also in not investing diamond windfalls to secure sustainable income for the government.

Now that we have disrupted continued governance failure, it is incumbent on the UDC to take some painful steps of stemming the budget deficit and setting the country for long term recovery and an export led economy. It will be better to take the painful pill now so that its positive effects are felt in the second half of the current mandate. Downsize the bloated ministries and give us stronger districts and an export led economy. Cut down expenditure to match income! We are currently running a monthly P3 billion budget deficit. So trim the budget while protecting the vulnerable communities and households. Cancel all overpriced tenders and put off projects that can wait. Extend the transitional development plan by another year so that NDP 12 can better reflect your priorities!