Govt told it needs to tighten its belt

GOVERNMENT needs to save money in its own departments to have more money available to help emerging farmers, train teachers and nurses and pay pensioners better, the Republican Party says.

In his party’s contribution to the Budget debate this week, RP leader Henk Mudge said he believed Government was losing millions by not being able to collect taxes owed to it and through fraudulent claims. Mudge said Government had to tighten its grip on its property and should also shut down its garage in favour of private dealerships servicing State vehicles – to save costs.The costs civil servants rake up through private tele­phone calls also had to be curbed, Mudge said.”You may argue that I am referring to petty issues, but I can assure you if you add up the amounts you will be astonished as to what amount the Government is losing every year and something must be done about this as a matter of urgency,” Mudge said on Tuesday.Mudge said it was immaterial to argue whether the new State House and Northern Railway projects were unnecessary or not, but he would like to know what the difference between the initial projected and actual costs was.But he said he remained unconvinced that the Government would be able to recoup the costs of building the northern railway because there were faster modes of transport for both people and goods.”The long and the short of the story is that we must cut back on our expenses and the most important place to start is the size of Government,” said Mudge.He bemoaned a situation in which he said opposition parties were not consulted by the Finance Ministry when it drafted the Budget, thereby excluding available expertise.Mudge said pensions had to be increased as pensioners could not be expected to live on the N$370 that was being proposed.More money also had to be spent on training teachers, nurses, magistrates and Police officers and paying them market-related salaries, he said.Money also needed to be pumped into restoring Government property such as hostels, schools and justice buildings and their equipment.Previously disadvantaged farmers had to be trained to enable them to become more productive and money needed to be spent on helping them acquire livestock so that they could become more than subsistence farmers.”We urgently need more money to address the unemployment crisis and the only way to do it is to create viable and sustainable projects.This will be the only way to solve the unemployment problem, and then I am talking about projects in every single town in this country,” Mudge said.”The only way to have more money available to spend on issues I mentioned is for the Government to either reduce public spending and thereby save, or to expand its revenue base.”Mudge said Government had to tighten its grip on its property and should also shut down its garage in favour of private dealerships servicing State vehicles – to save costs.The costs civil servants rake up through private tele­phone calls also had to be curbed, Mudge said.”You may argue that I am referring to petty issues, but I can assure you if you add up the amounts you will be astonished as to what amount the Government is losing every year and something must be done about this as a matter of urgency,” Mudge said on Tuesday.Mudge said it was immaterial to argue whether the new State House and Northern Railway projects were unnecessary or not, but he would like to know what the difference between the initial projected and actual costs was.But he said he remained unconvinced that the Government would be able to recoup the costs of building the northern railway because there were faster modes of transport for both people and goods.”The long and the short of the story is that we must cut back on our expenses and the most important place to start is the size of Government,” said Mudge.He bemoaned a situation in which he said opposition parties were not consulted by the Finance Ministry when it drafted the Budget, thereby excluding available expertise.Mudge said pensions had to be increased as pensioners could not be expected to live on the N$370 that was being proposed.More money also had to be spent on training teachers, nurses, magistrates and Police officers and paying them market-related salaries, he said.Money also needed to be pumped into restoring Government property such as hostels, schools and justice buildings and their equipment.Previously disadvantaged farmers had to be trained to enable them to become more productive and money needed to be spent on helping them acquire livestock so that they could become more than subsistence farmers.”We urgently need more money to address the unemployment crisis and the only way to do it is to create viable and sustainable projects.This will be the only way to solve the unemployment problem, and then I am talking about projects in every single town in this country,” Mudge said.”The only way to have more money available to spend on issues I mentioned is for the Government to either reduce public spending and thereby save, or to expand its revenue base.”