ANOTHER GOVT PROJECT DELAYED

The 1.2 billion Pula sewage project in Gaborone, which was initially set to finish in September this year, will now be extended by three months.

Director in the Department of Waste Management and Pollution Control, Jimmy Opelo, says the project which started in August 2009 has been delayed by problems such as a high water table and hard sedimentary rocks in some parts of Gaborone.

He says the infrastructure is expected to improve management of waste water and sewage in Gaborone and surrounding areas.Of late there have been concerns with some of the projects not finished on time and complaints about shoddy work at some projects.

But Infrastructure minister Johnny Swartz last week said government is doing something on the complaints. He assured the nation that gone are the days when contractors pocketed millions of Pula for projects that have not been delivered on time.

KHAMA PROMISES PAY-HIKE

Government will soon hike salaries for public officers at a date to be announced, President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama has said.

However, he said those who will benefit more from the move would be employees in the lower brackets of the public officers salary structure. Lt Gen. Khama said this during a kgotla meeting he addressed in Maun last week.

The officers in the lower brackets, he said, were the hardest hit by the debilitating effects of inflation.Although he did not state the increment amount, President Khama did however reveal that the salary increase would be nowhere near the 16 per cent, which the public sector unions had demanded from government last year.

BANKS URGED TO REACH OUT

Banks have been called on to translate their positive and profitable performance into lower banking costs for their clients and making banking more accessible to the rural population.

Finance Minister, Kenneth Matambo, was speaking last week during the official opening of Standard Chartered Bank’s new branch at the Airport Junction Shopping Complex in Gaborone.
He called on the banks to invest in “branch-less banking” saying lack of access to financial services continue to worry government.

He urged banks to consider introducing products that can be accessed by the un-banked population, by taking advantage of the infrastructure that Government has invested in such as the telecommunications systems.

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