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## 60. Arrears of Revenue 

The arrears of revenue under this Ministry had increased by 15% from P3 817 171 at the beginning of the year to P4 406 322 at the end of the year under review. The increase was due to slow collections and additional debts incurred during the year of account. The table below illustrates slow and ostensible lack of follow-up in collections of revenue debts by officers of the Ministry. 

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## 61. Audit Inspection – Department of Mines, Francistown 

An audit inspection was carried out at the above Department and a number of observations were raised, which were addressed to the Accounting Officer for his comments, the main ones of which were the following:- 

(a) A company which had been granted a prospecting licence was in arrears with the payment of fees to the tune of P1 479 305 dating back to 2012. Follow up by the Department to persuade the company to pay up was not successful as the intermittent payments were not sufficient to liquidate the debt. In my view, the continued failure of the company to settle its indebtedness would suggest that the company was not sufficiently assessed for financial soundness, as a condition of the grant of the licence in terms of the Mines and Minerals Act (Cap 66.01). 

(b) It had been established that a company that had been granted a license for river sand mining from Shashe Dam, valid from October 2012 to October 2017, had breached the terms of the licence by mining outside the lease area, and no action had been taken against that company. Furthermore, other instances had been reported of illegal sand mining where fines totalling P86 000 had been imposed. While this figure is for the Francistown office alone, there appears to be tardiness in the monitoring of these operations by the Department as the outstanding amount as at 31 March 2018 was P55 200, as per the arrears of revenue returns submitted to the Accountant General. 

