•  December 2000February 2001 Local News Headlines

Friday, March 2, 2001 - Web posted at 9:17:44 AM GMT

Nujoma clips wings of top officials
CHRISTOF MALETSKY

PRESIDENT Sam Nujoma has told all political office bearers they must obtain his permission "in good time of at least a year in advance" before they travel outside the country.

In a secret memorandum distributed to Cabinet members, Nujoma told them to reduce international trips to the "absolute minimum".

The memorandum, dated February 19, reminds political office bearers to comply with economic austerity measures that Cabinet has agreed to."

"Emergency and special circumstances will be dealt with on merit," he told them.

Nujoma gave Cabinet members until the end of March to submit details of foreign trips they have planned for the rest of the year.

They must also provide a motivation as to why they want to go on each visit.

However, only trips regarded as absolutely necessary would be considered, he told them.

The memorandum was sent to the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Ministers, Attorney General, Director General of National Planning Commission, Speaker of the National Assembly, Chairman of the National Council, Deputy Ministers and the Auditor General.

The move follows Nujoma's recent onslaught on Government waste and unnecessary expenditure.

When he opened the first Cabinet session last month, Nujoma outlined how both top Government figures and ordinary civil servants were frittering away vital resources that could be used to fight poverty.

He called on Cabinet and other political office bearers to stop using State vehicles for private weekend trips and to cut down on foreign visits that drain millions of dollars from public coffers.

Leading by example, Nujoma said he had cancelled all his official overseas excursions this year apart from trips he must take to the Commonwealth meeting in Australia, the Organisation of African Union (OAU) Summit in Lusaka and Africa Unity Summit in Libya as well as visits he has to make as Southern African Development Community (SADC) Chairman.

The President said the waste of resources led to development projects being "starved of funds".

Meanwhile, Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi has contributed to Nujoma's efforts to curb expenditure.

One of Gadhafi's executive jets picked up Nujoma's entourage for the OAU Extraordinary Summit in Sirte on Wednesday morning and will fly them back after the meeting on Saturday.

Sources said initially Nujoma wanted to fly commercially.