Kukuri charges criticism of Govt over-spending ‘unfair’

DEPUTY Minister of Finance Rick Kukuri has defended Government against criticism of its accounting systems following a report by the Parliamentary Accounts Committee on Government’s accounts for 1999.

The report highlights perpetual over-spending and unrecovered bad debts as major concerns. Speaking in the National Assembly last week, Kukuri said the report was limited in its findings and had not considered broader socio-economic or political issues that Government faced during the period under review.The Deputy Minister felt it was not sufficient to note that ministries were exceeding their budget votes without outlining the circumstances.Kukuri claimed that the amounts by which they had overshot thier budgets, as well as the timing, should be taken into account.He said the committee should have considered the potential consequences if the expenditure had not been incurred.”I do appreciate that there is room for improving the system with the aim of preventing and avoiding over-expenditure.A review of the system resulting in properly controlled flexibility, which in turn prevents and ultimately avoids over-expenditure, would be an urgently required process,” acknowledged Kukuri.But he maintained that in many instances the over-expenditure was offset by savings in other main divisions and consequently the vote in question was not exceeded.Kukuri agreed that under-expenditure within the Development Budget was unacceptable but attributed this to bureaucracy and the unpredictability of some projects.”The poor delivery rate of implementing development projects is truly worrying.Under-expenditure is as serious a wrongdoing as is over expenditure.It deprives us from funding priority activities where resources are limited, and in a deficit situation, it also causes unnecessary over-borrowing,” said Kukuri.He said the Finance Ministry was working on introducing more flexibility into the system without compromising accountability and fiscal discipline.The slow repayments on a loan granted to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was highlighted as a concern by the Public Accounts Committee, but Kukuri said US$500 000 was received in March 2002, and that Namibia was awaiting further payment on the loan after having sent a detailed account to the DRC Finance Minister.Speaking in the National Assembly last week, Kukuri said the report was limited in its findings and had not considered broader socio-economic or political issues that Government faced during the period under review.The Deputy Minister felt it was not sufficient to note that ministries were exceeding their budget votes without outlining the circumstances.Kukuri claimed that the amounts by which they had overshot thier budgets, as well as the timing, should be taken into account.He said the committee should have considered the potential consequences if the expenditure had not been incurred.”I do appreciate that there is room for improving the system with the aim of preventing and avoiding over-expenditure.A review of the system resulting in properly controlled flexibility, which in turn prevents and ultimately avoids over-expenditure, would be an urgently required process,” acknowledged Kukuri.But he maintained that in many instances the over-expenditure was offset by savings in other main divisions and consequently the vote in question was not exceeded.Kukuri agreed that under-expenditure within the Development Budget was unacceptable but attributed this to bureaucracy and the unpredictability of some projects.”The poor delivery rate of implementing development projects is truly worrying.Under-expenditure is as serious a wrongdoing as is over expenditure.It deprives us from funding priority activities where resources are limited, and in a deficit situation, it also causes unnecessary over-borrowing,” said Kukuri.He said the Finance Ministry was working on introducing more flexibility into the system without compromising accountability and fiscal discipline.The slow repayments on a loan granted to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was highlighted as a concern by the Public Accounts Committee, but Kukuri said US$500 000 was received in March 2002, and that Namibia was awaiting further payment on the loan after having sent a detailed account to the DRC Finance Minister.