Travelling through parts of Botswana where the government’s Development Manager model was supposed to deliver new roads, schools and other infrastructure, the reality is hard to miss. 

Cleared plots of land stand baking in the sun, dotted with idle machinery and half-finished foundations. A new government review explains why. According to the Task Team report, many of the sites allocated under the DM model show little to no activity despite substantial payments already made to Development Managers and contractors. 

In some instances, the physical progress is so minimal that it bears no relation to the level of financial disbursement. The report points to misaligned project allocation, with some Development Managers awarded packages far outside their areas of expertise, leading to delays and poor execution. The absence of transparent criteria for matching projects to contractor capacity compounded these issues. 

Oversight was equally lacking, with the Catalyst Project Team failing to track expenditure against progress in real time. The result, the report says, is a landscape of stalled projects that not only waste money but also erode public confidence in government-led development.