- Says someone must have slept on the job somewhere along the process
- Will follow the trail between DTEF, the Ministry of Finance and UB
SESUPO RANTSIMAKO
The Minister of Education and Skills Development (MESD), Dr Douglas Letsholathebe, will launch an investigation into what led to March salaries of University of Botswana (UB) employees being delayed and map a way forward.
Last week, the institution caused panic when it informed its employees that their March salaries would not be paid in due time because of financial constraints.
While the institution managed to credit the salaries just a day after announcing the delay, Minister Letsholathebe has been prompted to act because he suspects someone slept on the job and says he will investigate.
Tuition fees
The areas of his probe will be the Department of Tertiary Education Financing (DTEF), the Ministry of Finance and UB itself.
“The university relies on tuition fees to pay its salaries,” he said in an interview. “But it seems when they announced the delay, they were yet to be credited.
“For tuition fees to be paid, the procedure is that UB compiles a list of its sponsored students. This is sent to DTEF and eventually to Finance (ministry), which will then credit the money to the university.
Supplementary budget
“The investigation will determine what transpired in this very process. The outcome of the investigation will guide us on the way forward.”
The minister added that although Parliament only approved UB’s supplementary budget last week, this cannot be the reason for the delay in March salaries.
“Even if the supplementary budget was credited to UB late, tuition fees should have covered the salaries,” he said.
Payment confirmed
Reached for comment, the Secretary General of the University of Botswana Academic Support Staff Union (UBASSU), Dr Batlang Seabo, confirmed payment of the staff salaries.
“I can confirm that the employees started receiving their salaries on Friday last week,” he said. “What we gathered from management is that the government delayed to credit the tuition fees that are used for staff salaries.”