A Good Resolution

WOULDN’T it be a good idea for government to make a New Year resolution to clean up its act, at least insofar as corruption and irregular and excessive expenditure are concerned? I am absolutely certain this move would be welcomed by the majority of our people, even the most diehard of ruling party stalwarts who believe Government can do no wrong.

ALTHOUGH the most recent report of the Auditor General is pretty outdated – it applies to the 1999-2000 financial year – it repeats the litany of complaints of earlier years about irregular and excessive spending, and in addition there is little to indicate that Government has cleaned up its act since then. Among others it revealed that in 1999-2000 the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo added a massive N$53 million in unbudgeted expenditure, a considerable sum amount of money that this columnist, at least, thinks could have been better spent elsewhere.In total, for that financial year, irregular spending hit N$213 million, and the former Auditor General again repeated his often-uttered warning that poor budgeting and lack of proper financial controls needed to be nipped in the bud.With this recurrence year after year, it does show that there is scant regard in Government ranks for any kind of budgeting at all.In fact, why bother even to have a Parliament to control and approve the use of taxpayers’ money, if we are not going to stick to budgets? While certain Ministries were more guilty than others at exceeding their budgets, even those who are not the main culprits were fingered by the AG in some cases for even failing to maintain basic bookkeeping standards.This is scary stuff and it is probably up to the Ministry of Finance to set some really stringent standards for other Ministries to stick to and, of course, to apply the same to themselves, since that key Ministry was partly to blame for delays in reporting as well.For the redress of this sad situation, we also have to look at the role of the executive.If one takes the case of the high costs of the war in the DRC, then it must be said that the decision for Namibia to embroil itself in that war was one taken by none other than the President himself, and I guess, in this instance, the Ministry of Defence had no alternative but to comply.It is also unlikely even to have been consulted on whether to go to war.Unfortunately the over-expenditures are seldom ascribed to humanitarian factors.If, for example, the Ministry of Health overspent as a result of increasing old age pensions, that would be one thing.At least it is a good and justifiable cause.But to say that their overspending stemmed from such factors as increased travel for the Minister, or payments to deputy Ministers after a mid-year reshuffle, among others, is not acceptable at all.The Labour Ministry, among others, failed to keep proper bank reconciliation statements; the Foreign Ministry had kept N$6 million under ‘unknown account’ codes; State House kept exceeding amounts exempted from tender procedures; and so it goes on.It is commendable that incumbent Auditor General Junius Kandjeke decided to release findings in an attempt to reduce delays in future.In particular this appeared to be targeted at the Ministry of Finance which has pretty consistently failed to present its financial reports within seven months of the fiscal year in question, as required by law.If accountability were a more revered institution in our Government, then we could at least make the incumbent Ministers responsible for these omissions and irregularities, and in fact this is a position we should move to in order to avoid similar occurrences in future.This should apply to all Ministers, regardless of their political standing, and they should lose their posts if they cannot themselves stick to the letter and spirit of the law.Ideally all Ministries would vow to resolve to be accountable in future, but in practice I very much doubt that the situation will change, as indictments such as those in the 1999-2000 Auditor General’s report don’t seem to be taken too seriously by the upper echelons of Government.Among others it revealed that in 1999-2000 the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo added a massive N$53 million in unbudgeted expenditure, a considerable sum amount of money that this columnist, at least, thinks could have been better spent elsewhere. In total, for that financial year, irregular spending hit N$213 million, and the former Auditor General again repeated his often-uttered warning that poor budgeting and lack of proper financial controls needed to be nipped in the bud. With this recurrence year after year, it does show that there is scant regard in Government ranks for any kind of budgeting at all. In fact, why bother even to have a Parliament to control and approve the use of taxpayers’ money, if we are not going to stick to budgets? While certain Ministries were more guilty than others at exceeding their budgets, even those who are not the main culprits were fingered by the AG in some cases for even failing to maintain basic bookkeeping standards. This is scary stuff and it is probably up to the Ministry of Finance to set some really stringent standards for other Ministries to stick to and, of course, to apply the same to themselves, since that key Ministry was partly to blame for delays in reporting as well. For the redress of this sad situation, we also have to look at the role of the executive. If one takes the case of the high costs of the war in the DRC, then it must be said that the decision for Namibia to embroil itself in that war was one taken by none other than the President himself, and I guess, in this instance, the Ministry of Defence had no alternative but to comply. It is also unlikely even to have been consulted on whether to go to war. Unfortunately the over-expenditures are seldom ascribed to humanitarian factors. If, for example, the Ministry of Health overspent as a result of increasing old age pensions, that would be one thing. At least it is a good and justifiable cause. But to say that their overspending stemmed from such factors as increased travel for the Minister, or payments to deputy Ministers after a mid-year reshuffle, among others, is not acceptable at all. The Labour Ministry, among others, failed to keep proper bank reconciliation statements; the Foreign Ministry had kept N$6 million under ‘unknown account’ codes; State House kept exceeding amounts exempted from tender procedures; and so it goes on. It is commendable that incumbent Auditor General Junius Kandjeke decided to release findings in an attempt to reduce delays in future. In particular this appeared to be targeted at the Ministry of Finance which has pretty consistently failed to present its financial reports within seven months of the fiscal year in question, as required by law. If accountability were a more revered institution in our Government, then we could at least make the incumbent Ministers responsible for these omissions and irregularities, and in fact this is a position we should move to in order to avoid similar occurrences in future. This should apply to all Ministers, regardless of their political standing, and they should lose their posts if they cannot themselves stick to the letter and spirit of the law. Ideally all Ministries would vow to resolve to be accountable in future, but in practice I very much doubt that the situation will change, as indictments such as those in the 1999-2000 Auditor General’s report don’t seem to be taken too seriously by the upper echelons of Government.