NDF slammed for failing accountability test

Some parliamentarians have lashed out at the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) for failing to fully account for public expenditure used to buy military equipment under the guise of security.

This comes after the parliamentary standing committee on public accounts flagged the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs for denying it access to audit critical military equipment.

This is contained in the committee’s report on the year ended on 31 March 2019.

The ministry was given a disclaimer audit opinion for the period under review due to ‘scope limitation’.

This means the Office of the Auditor General was not given access to inspect and verify receipts against the actual equipment procured or repaired by the ministry.

Public accounts committee chairperson Dudu Murorua says the NDF misunderstood the auditors.

They only wanted to account and verify the invoices of purchased equipment to see if such equipment is really there, he says.

“I do not think the auditors wanted to see how many firearms or equipment they had. They simply wanted to see serial numbers as an example to compare it to the invoices to see if they match,” he says.

Murorua says he hopes the issue will be resolved with the next auditing exercise.

The report is set to be discussed in the parliament at a later stage.

Popular Democratic Movement member of parliament Elma Dienda says the NDF should not be funded if it cannot open its books for auditing.

She says this is the same approach the Electoral Commission of Namibia has to parties that do not account for every dollar.

“The government must stop funding them in the same way political parties are punished when not producing audit reports.

We cannot have selective morality when it comes to taxpayers’ money. What makes the NDF so special? What are they hiding?” she asks.

‘EMBARRASSING’
Another parliamentarian, Kalimbo Iipumbu of the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters, says it is embarrassing to have a defence ministry that “hides behind security reasons” instead of being accountable for its spending.

“It is utterly embarrassing to have such a ministry that refuses to be held accountable for every penny spent on military equipment.

“What security risks are they talking about? The public has the right to know where its money goes and what it is spent on to the last cent.

They must stop this and account for every dollar,” he says.

Iipumbu says the Democratic Republic of Congo crisis is the result of a lack of transparency.

He says Namibia needs to learn from and avoid this example.

Iipumbu says even if he were to suggest that funding to the NDF be diverted elsewhere, it is unlikely to happen as the system belongs to the incumbent government.

He says “the system” is censored and only benefits the ruling party.

The NDF’s lack of transparency is disrespectful to citizens, he says.

“Namibia is no enemy to anyone. So why the secrecy? Open the books.

What are you afraid of? Are you telling us that to say the NDF bought a fighter jet or built base camps will compromise us?” Iipumbu asks.

Meanwhile, ministry spokesperson Petrus Shilumbu says the ministry received an unqualified audit opinion for the past four years, which was presented in the parliament, but the media failed to report this.

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