Build Together Programme abuse spirals ‘out of control’

GOVERNMENT faces a backlog of 300 000 applications for houses to be built under its Build Together Programme, but no money to build them.

Besides the money shortages, the system is also plagued by abuse and corruption, a parliamentary committee heard yesterday. Local Government Permanent Secretary Erastus Negonga told the Public Accounts committee that it was mostly those who were appointed to oversee the programme in the regions – regional councillors and local authority councillors – as part of the decentralisation process who were defrauding the system by either taking loans themselves or awarding them to those who earned too much to qualify.”That I can’t control,” said Negonga.”The Permanent Secretary is ever hard at work to ensure abuses of the system are eliminated, however due to the corrupt tendencies of those who are in charge, [the Ministry] is unable to assure the committee that the abuse of the system won’t occur again.”Since 2001, the programme’s budget has increased by 42 per cent.It was allocated N$29 million in the 2005/06 financial year.Since the programme’s inception in 1992, 12 300 houses have been built.Negonga said numerous cases had surfaced in which local authorities either used the Build Together Programme money to bail them out of their financial crises, or where Chief Executive Officers and Mayors had awarded loans to people who didn’t qualify.Negonga contended that abuse of the system did not often stem from beneficiaries themselves but those designated to run the system.The Katima Mulilo Town Council spent half a million dollars of the Build Together money to keep their municipality afloat, while a Henties Bay councillor took out a loan for own use and at Usakos an accountant defrauded the programme.”We are going through the books of all the Regional Councils and local authorities.Most of the time we have detected and rectified those incidences, but we can’t prevent their occurrence,” said Negonga.Negonga said there were strict regulations stipulating who qualified for assistance under the scheme, but committees in the regions were at fault for allowing the system to be abused.”If people were honest, the guidelines are straight and clear.But it is beyond the control of the PS,” he said.The parliamentary committee expressed concern that those who defrauded the system were not being punished accordingly, and requested that Negonga provide details of those involved and the kind of action that had been taken against them.Deputy Director of Housing and Habitat Co-ordination Uillka Kamboua said some beneficiaries simply “disappeared” without repaying their loans or even before their houses were completed.Around the country, 1 085 houses are incomplete – the majority still being built, but around 40 per cent have been abandoned.Kamboua said in recent years Government also had to write off more than N$2 million in debt of beneficiaries who could no longer afford their houses on a pensioner’s income.She said when the programme began, many of its beneficiaries were already in their fifties and they can no longer pay.An independent audit in 2001 revealed that many beneficiaries were faced with the consequences of orphaned children and deaths as a result of the HIV-AIDS pandemic.”We failed to make provision for a bad-debt element in the programme.There will always be bad debt.You can’t run a business without it,” Kamboua told the committee hearing.Negonga was of the view that although the programme was making strides in achieving Government’s policy of shelter for all, more resources were needed to beat the ever-increasing costs of building materials to build more houses.The scheme pays out a maximum amount of N$40 000 to build a house and beneficiaries should have already acquired their own serviced erf and have a monthly income of no more than N$3 000 per month.On average the Build Together Programme spends around N$28 000 to build a two-bedroom house.The most houses have been built in the Erongo Region (1 225), followed by Otjozondjupa (819) and Oshana (613).Only 162 houses have been completed in Omusati, 197 in Caprivi and 205 in Kavango.Local Government Permanent Secretary Erastus Negonga told the Public Accounts committee that it was mostly those who were appointed to oversee the programme in the regions – regional councillors and local authority councillors – as part of the decentralisation process who were defrauding the system by either taking loans themselves or awarding them to those who earned too much to qualify.”That I can’t control,” said Negonga.”The Permanent Secretary is ever hard at work to ensure abuses of the system are eliminated, however due to the corrupt tendencies of those who are in charge, [the Ministry] is unable to assure the committee that the abuse of the system won’t occur again.”Since 2001, the programme’s budget has increased by 42 per cent.It was allocated N$29 million in the 2005/06 financial year.Since the programme’s inception in 1992, 12 300 houses have been built.Negonga said numerous cases had surfaced in which local authorities either used the Build Together Programme money to bail them out of their financial crises, or where Chief Executive Officers and Mayors had awarded loans to people who didn’t qualify.Negonga contended that abuse of the system did not often stem from beneficiaries themselves but those designated to run the system.The Katima Mulilo Town Council spent half a million dollars of the Build Together money to keep their municipality afloat, while a Henties Bay councillor took out a loan for own use and at Usakos an accountant defrauded the programme.”We are going through the books of all the Regional Councils and local authorities.Most of the time we have detected and rectified those incidences, but we can’t prevent their occurrence,” said Negonga.Negonga said there were strict regulations stipulating who qualified for assistance under the scheme, but committees in the regions were at fault for allowing the system to be abused.”If people were honest, the guidelines are straight and clear.But it is beyond the control of the PS,” he said.The parliamentary committee expressed concern that those who defrauded the system were not being punished accordingly, and requested that Negonga provide details of those involved and the kind of action that had been taken against them.Deputy Director of Housing and Habitat Co-ordination Uillka Kamboua said some beneficiaries simply “disappeared” without repaying their loans or even before their houses were completed.Around the country, 1 085 houses are incomplete – the majority still being built, but around 40 per cent have been abandoned.Kamboua said in recent years Government also had to write off more than N$2 million in debt of beneficiaries who could no longer afford their houses on a pensioner’s income.She said when the programme began, many of its beneficiaries were already in their fifties and they can no longer pay.An independent audit in 2001 revealed that many beneficiaries were faced with the consequences of orphaned children and deaths as a result of the HIV-AIDS pandemic.”We failed to make provision for a bad-debt element in the programme.There will always be bad debt.You can’t run a business without it,” Kamboua told the committee hearing.Negonga was of the view that although the programme was making strides in achieving Government’s policy of shelter for all, more resources were needed to beat the ever-increasing costs of building materials to build more houses.The scheme pays out a maximum amount of N$40 000 to build a house and beneficiaries should have already acquired their own serviced erf and have a monthly income of no more than N$3 000 per month.On average the Build Together Programme spends around N$28 000 to build a two-bedroom house.The most houses have been built in the Erongo Region (1 225), followed by Otjozondjupa (819) and Oshana (613).Only 162 houses have been completed in Omusati, 197 in Caprivi and 205 in Kavango.