Bame Piet
24 April 2008
The Office of the President has kicked off Citizen Economic Empowerment (CEE) initiatives effective from today. A directive from the Permanent Secretary to the President, Eric Molale issued yesterday, instructs that all government ministries, parastatals, local authorities and wholly owned government companies should purchase decorations, arts and crafts, landscaping and related goods from citizens and 100 percent citizen owned companies.
"Further to the above, the permanent secretary to the President has directed that preference shall be given to youth and women individuals and groups. The Ministries of Trade and Industry and Youth, Sports and Culture, as well as Labour and Home Affairs, have been tasked with monitoring progress on this directive. In this respect, they are to report on its implementation on a quarterly basis," the statement says.
The directive has also been communicated to PPADB for implementation and monitoring, while the Ministries of Local Government and Lands and Housing have been instructed to further inform the local authorities of its content to ensure compliance.
Another directive is that in support of small scale caterers and vendors in public buildings and offices, steps be taken to reserve reasonable space in the foyers and reception areas of various public buildings and offices so as to allow small scale caterers and vendors to sell their goods. Such spaces shall be allocated for free.
"Further to the above, guidelines are to be drawn up within ministries for the implementation of the directive in order to ensure that transparent rules are first put into place as to how to select its commercial beneficiaries, as well as to determine the specific locations and otherwise prescribe the manner in which such businesses shall be carried out," the directive says.
It will also be applied to para-statals, local authorities and wholly owned government companies.
Coordinator of government communications and information services, Dr Jeff Ramsay says that the initiatives are another government commitment to the empowerment of citizens. He said that it is hoped that the paintings or decorations would reflect the culture of Batswana and are in line with Vision 2016 goals. "This is in the President's roadmap," he confirmed.
He says this applies to all government offices throughout the country and he was hopeful for a comprehensive collection of data on local artists. He added that the existing pictures in government offices that may not have been created by locals would be removed at some point.
The move could be the result of the serious study of answers to questions that former MP for Palapye, Boyce Sebetela asked on what government departments were doing to encourage citizen economic empowerment.
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