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## (o) Conservation Trust Fund 

In terms of the Fund Order establishing the Fund the purpose of the Fund is to finance the conservations of elephants and the development of community based projects for communities living adjacent to elephants ranges. The Fund Order further provides that the cost of management and administration shall be met by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks. 

On the foregoing basis, the following expenditures charged to the Fund were, in my view, inappropriate to the Fund: 

## (p) Tourism Industry Training fund 

 Grant of P629 200 to Birdlife Botswana, which has no connection to elephant conservation. 

 Purchase of office equipment (shredding machines, vehicle, computer, laptop, printer and camera) to the tune of P480 062: the expenditure should have been borne by the Department. 

 Grant of P589 746 to Chobe Enclave Trust for purchase of vehicles for animal count, which covered all animals in the area. 

The expenditure of P18 268 939 from the Fund during the year under review included the undernoted payments which I considered inappropriate to the Fund, whose main purpose is the financing of skills training programmes for employees of the tourism sector in key areas of the hospitality industry – 

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As I have repeatedly commented in the past the audit was handicapped by lack of the spreadsheet with details of all tourist enterprises and the revenue generated for the Fund by them. 

