Increases For Top Officials But What Do They Really Earn?

IT COMES as no surprise that President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s decision to give political office bearers a 24 per cent salary increase is a controversial one, especially given that the effects of an international recession may impact Namibia more seriously in the near future.

The announcement made in late December promised 12 per cent increases for the political hierarchy once the decision had been gazetted, and another 12 per cent when the national Budget is approved for the next financial year.
The increases will be for the Prime Minister and Deputy, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Speaker of Parliament, Chairperson and all members of the National Assembly as well as National Council.
President Pohamba’s decision came in the wake of a report presented to him earlier last year by the Public Office-Bearers (Remuneration and Benefits) Commission, and pointing out that politicians salaries lagged behind as much as 86 per cent in terms of the consumer price index.
President Pohamba initially delayed acting on the report, but finally agreed to the 24 per cent salary hike after considering prevailing economic conditions.
While many are concerned about the cost to Namibian financial coffers of the wage increase given the background of a possible serious recession ahead, there is added worry about possible political opportunism with the President’s announcement coming on the eve of an election year.
The promise of an increase for civil servants was also mooted for April this year by a senior Government official, but President Pohamba did not address this issue.
Only this week there was a call by the opposition DTA for a special Parliamentary sitting to discuss salary increases for the civil service in order to ‘urgently address’ their plight.
A country on the probable brink of even harder economic times should be looking, with particular concern, at the middle and lower income groups, rather than those at the top of the ladder.
It may be correct to say, as the Commission has said, that the remuneration of top political office bearers is out of keeping with the consumer price index, but overall increases may be a price too high for the country to pay under the circumstances and at the current time.
Perhaps even more importantly, there is an urgent need for transparency on the pay packages of our political elite and civil service, so that in deciding whether increases are merited or not at this time, the public is aware of what they really earn.
As it happens, Government pay structures are shrouded in secrecy.
The magazine Insight reported some time back that rough estimates of the earnings of the top elite were around N$38 000 a month for Ministers; deputy Ministers about N$35 000 a month and Permanent Secretaries approximately N$32 000, which do not sound unduly high. However, there is total lack of transparency by Government as to their total packages, including all the allowances – furniture, vehicle, cellphones etc, payment of municipal bills, contributions to staff costs (domestic and other house workers) and entertainment perks, among others. So these figures could be providing us with a totally skewed view.
We would therefore take this opportunity to once again call on Government, and the President more specifically, to provide the public with the full picture of the earnings of our political elite. Information such as this should be freely available, and not a state secret.
Only in this way can we pass judgement on the advisability or not, of 24 per cent increases.
Added to this, is of course, the concern based on widespread knowledge of the near-criminality of high subsistence and travel allowances (S & Ts). It is an open secret that there are high-ranking office bearers who have boasted that they do not need to touch their monthly salaries if they’ve travelled abroad, and it is doubtful whether the Commission referred to earlier took this into account in their assessment.
We acknowledge that our political elite and Government employees in general need to be decently paid in order to deliver quality service. This is of course not a concern of the Commission, that much is evident. The argument for more favourable pay is usually to prevent crime and corruption and kickbacks in Government. On the other hand however, no one should enter Government employ thinking they will become instant millionaires. There should be a strong element of public service.
At the end of the day, however, it is not necessarily a judicious move to increase salaries of top office bearers at this juncture. It will inevitably set in motion a chain reaction down the line at a time when people may need to realise they should be grateful that they have jobs at all.