06 Apr 2025

The North East District Council (NEDC) has approved a proposed budget of over P189 million for the 2025/2026 financial year. 

Presenting the recurrent and development budget during NEDC full council session, Finance and General Purposes Committee chairperson Mr Nabulani Lenyatso said the proposed recurrent budget estimates for the fiscal year 2025/26 was P189 964 310 comprising of P179 282 268 and P10 162 044 being Revenue Support Grant (RSG) and income from own sources respectively. 

Mr Lenyatso said the budget was a significant milestone and would go further in advancing their commitment of delivering quality services to Batswana. He urged those responsible for the daily management of finances during the 2025/26 financial year to put in more effort and collect whatever was due to council. 

“As for the development budget, the Second Transitional Development Plan has been extended up to  October 31,” he said. 

Mr Lenyatso stated that the current allocation for the district would mainly focus on ongoing projects from the last financial year. He noted that under the Ministry of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, the total proposed development budget stood at over P119.6 million. 

Mr Lenyatso stated that the development budget was being allocated as follows; construction of Tribal Administration offices at Mulambakwena, Gambule, Patayamatebele and Pole at about P10.6 million; maintenance of Matsiloje Primary School facilities at P763 270 , Ipelegeng Programme at about P31.6 million, Community Constituency Projects (CCPs) at P20 million and School Feeding budgeted at around P32.2 million. He said the remaining P24.3 million would cater for Primary School Backlog Eradication Programme, Orphan Care Programme, Community Home Based Care and RAD Levy Fund. 

On the other hand, he said history had shown that local authorities were highly dependent on the Revenue Support Grant but continued to under collect. Therefore, he  highlighted that under the current ailing economy, there was need to explore new avenues for cost containment and revenue generation. He said income from own sources of revenue had shown a marginal increase, which was mainly due to inclusion of Clinic Fees anticipated to collect P284 400. 

“Since this budget approval marks the beginning of our tenure of office in terms of budget planning, let me urge you to ensure that we continue serving Batswana diligently,” he said.

Mr Lenyatso said the 6.4 per cent personnel emoluments decrease was due to exclusion of provision for payment of members’ terminal benefits while the significant increase of 29 per cent under running expenses increase was mainly attributed to a rise in water tariffs for government institutions by 40 per cent. 

He also said special expenses decrease of 19.3 per cent was as a result of a move to transfer provision of care and protection of vulnerable children from the recurrent budget to the development budget under the Orphan Care and Vulnerable Children Programme. ENDS