REGIONAL councils and local authorities will now be required to submit an accountability report on their spending before new budgets for land servicing are approved by the line ministry.
This was said by urban and rural development executive director Nghidinua Daniel during a high-level regional and local government retreat at Walvis Bay, which ended on Friday.
He told about 300 senior officials and administrators from regional and local authorities that “for your next transfer, you must give an accountability report for what you did with the money you already got.”
“If we do not get the reports on time, you won’t get the money,” Daniel warned, adding that such slackness will impact staff salaries and the delivery of services to communities.
Regional and local governments get money from the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development annually for land delivery projects.
Daniel said data capturing of the implementation processes pertaining to urban and rural development required a lot of improvement.
“Authorities have budgets that were approved by the councils, and these budgets are linked to activities. However, when having to report on these funded activities, it becomes a problem. We do not get the information,” he stressed. A deliberate strategy, through the urban land reform policy, was thus incorporated into the current financial year’s budget to cater for informal settlements.
Data from the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia for 2018 state that 995 000 people are living in 228 000 shacks in the urban centres of the country.
Erongo governor Cleophas Mutjavikua said it was a fact that Namibia is known for coming up with good plans, but struggling to implement them.
He was specifically referring to the implementation of resolutions stemming from last year’s second national land conference related to the mandate of the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development.
“There are strategic plans to achieve the goals; that is the vision we all need to strive towards,” he said, reiterating his concern about governors who “try to pass the buck” to other institutions, such as parliament or Cabinet.
“Every governor is an implementer. We cannot blame the ministry for sometimes not doing things. Sometimes, the buck stops with us,” he added.
Meanwhile, urban and rural development minister, Peya Mushelenga urged local and regional councils not to waste money on large delegations to events.
The minister said he often receives requests, especially by local authorities, to approve delegations for foreign trips.
“Some of these delegations are too large, especially considering what they are going for. And when you are there, you find that some people are not doing anything but loitering in the corridors, if not at informal markets, shopping. This is not right, because this is where expenses go up. We must really cut our expenses,” he told the meeting.
The retreat was used to review progress made on national development goals, and identifying challenges in implementation, particularly with urban land and housing delivery, regional and rural development, sanitation and good governance.
