TJIPENANDJAMBI KUHANGAFisheries minister Bernhard Esau last week said his ministry would finalise the issue of new fishing rights and renewals this year.
Addressing a staff meeting in Windhoek, Esau said his ministry would also implement the scorecard for quota allocations, and take value addition to a new level.
Besides, Esau said, there will be efforts to eradicate some illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) activities prevalent in the northern maritime borders.
According to Esau, the ministry would also finalise eco-labelling hake and conclude the in-depth studies on pilchard as well as the study on seals.
In a media statement last year, Esau revealed his ministry received about 5 200 applications for fishing rights from all parts of the country between May and August.
Last week, Esau said the culture of excuses for inaction and delays in the execution of activities must come to an end immediately.
He urged the executive director to pay more attention to solving the current monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) issues.
The minister urged the executive director and managers to come up with measures to monitor punctuality for even those in management cadres and ensure that those who violate these staff rules are punished promptly.
“We must strengthen this chain of command in our public service system to eradicate the culture of excuses and the blame game in our civil service,” Esau said, adding that this was a big responsibility which calls for sobriety, professionalism and dedication.
The minister said accountability is the duty of everyone, from the lowest ranked staff member to the most senior.
“From a moral perspective, every staff member should consider the fact that the public pays them, and hence, at the end of every day ask themselves, what have I accomplished today that is worth the pay that I will receive for today’s work?” the minister said.
He added that one of the accountability issues which needs urgent attention is punctuality at work.
The minister further said that last year was a tough year due to budget cuts and resulted in several activities of the fisheries ministry which were not fully implemented.
However, the ministry has been able to mobilise resources from the marine resources fund (MRF) to supplement the main budget, especially targeting essential services of the ministry, he added.
According to him, in September 2018, 30 % of the N$122 million MRF budget (about N$36,4 million) was approved for expenditure.
This was in line with government budget procedures and on 15 November 2018 the minister approved the entire MRF budget for expenditure, in line with the Marine Resources Act, 2000.
He added that there should be no excuse for the directorates, through the executive director, for not implementing essential programmes of the ministry that are pending.
Esau said as a ministry they aim to continue with the international collaboration and leadership on the blue economy, oceans’ health; and implementation of the memorandum of understandings with fisheries partner states.
“I, however, urge more coordination between the executive director and this directorate in ensuring timely procurements, and execution of activities,” he said.
The minister said about 77% of all overtime in the ministry is spent in the directorate addressing IUU, but the results are not satisfactory. Thus a lot more can be done.
