Editorial: The Non-Priority Spending Spiral

THERE are some positive signs that, increasingly, Namibians are making a connection between the wastefulness of certain lavish Government expenditures seen against the stark contrast of rising poverty and unemployment in Namibia.

Not enough, unfortunately, to make national elections later this year issue-driven, but nevertheless indicating that more and more people are speaking out in public fora and in the letters pages of newspapers against taxpayers money being spent on non-essential issues. A UN report this week again pointed out the seriousness of the humanitarian crisis developing in southern Africa, Namibia included, with particular emphasis on the plight of orphans and women and the latter’s inability to access critical necessities such as food, clean water, education and health care.And while the developed world is expected to fund programmes through UN agencies, to extend the hand of help to marginalised and vulnerable groups, our own Government does not seem to let up in its spending on non-priorities, despite verbal promises to the contrary.The examples are legion where money is lavished on the refurbishment of government offices; increased furniture allowances for MPs; an extended foreign trip for the President; a Government-funded campaign trip for Swapo’s presidential candidate-cum-lands minister; sudden familiarisation trips for ministers and deputies in office for more than five years; and the purchase of expensive vehicles for political office bearers.Neither singly nor in combination can the abovementioned be described as priorities, and despite criticism for several years of these expenditures primarily by the media, there has been scant public assent.But this appears to be changing.Nowadays, ordinary Namibians are indeed questioning Government ‘priorities’ – from the building of a luxurious new State House to the purchase of over-priced vehicles.But Namibians will have to speak louder if they want Government to hear.No one can doubt that the ruling party has been elected, time after time since Independence, and with increased majorities each time, but seldom, if ever, have issues played a role.The vote has always been an emotive ‘vote-for-Swapo-because-they-liberated-us’ groundswell feeling, but one gets the impression this is changing, albeit slowly.Certainly not fast enough for the ruling party to sit up and take notice of the fact that people are making a connection.The President himself, vocal a year or two ago on the waste of non-essential jaunts abroad for Government officials – and insisting that such trips be personally approved by him – has lately been criss-crossing the globe, apparently to bid farewell before his term of office expires.He has been to, among others, several African countries as well as Cuba, Brazil, China, Malaysia, and is still to travel to the US and other places.Hard to imagine what has been achieved for the country, except to cement already existing ties with some of these places.Whether his visits even generated much publicity in the countries he’s visited is not known, so one is inclined to ask therefore: what was the purpose of this extended trip abroad if not simply to bid adieu before he steps down.And then once he’s done that, we probably have to send his successor abroad for the purposes of introducing him, so the spiral never ends! Certainly there are times when our Head of State’s presence is not only required, but also necessary, but it would be gratifying if at such times his office could spell this out to the public at large, rather than simply inform them of his departure and return.A letter in today’s edition complains about the non-essential nature of a refurbishing of the chamber of our national Parliament; and this week The Namibian reported a lavish, tender-exempted 4×4 purchase for the Attorney General.The money spent on those items, as well as many other examples of Government excess, could definitely have been better spent elsewhere.One would hope that this renewed sense of priorities is something that Namibians will demand explanations of in the future, and hopefully it will lead to change in terms of what the real needs of the country are.A UN report this week again pointed out the seriousness of the humanitarian crisis developing in southern Africa, Namibia included, with particular emphasis on the plight of orphans and women and the latter’s inability to access critical necessities such as food, clean water, education and health care.And while the developed world is expected to fund programmes through UN agencies, to extend the hand of help to marginalised and vulnerable groups, our own Government does not seem to let up in its spending on non-priorities, despite verbal promises to the contrary.The examples are legion where money is lavished on the refurbishment of government offices; increased furniture allowances for MPs; an extended foreign trip for the President; a Government-funded campaign trip for Swapo’s presidential candidate-cum-lands minister; sudden familiarisation trips for ministers and deputies in office for more than five years; and the purchase of expensive vehicles for political office bearers.Neither singly nor in combination can the abovementioned be described as priorities, and despite criticism for several years of these expenditures primarily by the media, there has been scant public assent.But this appears to be changing.Nowadays, ordinary Namibians are indeed questioning Government ‘priorities’ – from the building of a luxurious new State House to the purchase of over-priced vehicles.But Namibians will have to speak louder if they want Government to hear.No one can doubt that the ruling party has been elected, time after time since Independence, and with increased majorities each time, but seldom, if ever, have issues played a role.The vote has always been an emotive ‘vote-for-Swapo-because-they-liberated-us’ groundswell feeling, but one gets the impression this is changing, albeit slowly.Certainly not fast enough for the ruling party to sit up and take notice of the fact that people are making a connection.The President himself, vocal a year or two ago on the waste of non-essential jaunts abroad for Government officials – and insisting that such trips be personally approved by him – has lately been criss-crossing the globe, apparently to bid farewell before his term of office expires.He has been to, among others, several African countries as well as Cuba, Brazil, China, Malaysia, and is still to travel to the US and other places.Hard to imagine what has been achieved for the country, except to cement already existing ties with some of these places.Whether his visits even generated much publicity in the countries he’s visited is not known, so one is inclined to ask therefore: what was the purpose of this extended trip abroad if not simply to bid adieu before he steps down.And then once he’s done that, we probably have to send his successor abroad for the purposes of introducing him, so the spiral never ends! Certainly there are times when our Head of State’s presence is not only required, but also necessary, but it would be gratifying if at such times his office could spell this out to the public at large, rather than simply inform them of his departure and return.A letter in today’s edition complains about the non-essential nature of a refurbishing of the chamber of our national Parliament; and this week The Namibian reported a lavish, tender-exempted 4×4 purchase for the Attorney General.The money spent on those items, as well as many other examples of Government excess, could definitely have been better spent elsewhere.One would hope that this renewed sense of priorities is something that Namibians will demand explanations of in the future, and hopefully it will lead to change in terms of what the real needs of the country are.