IF I was one of the countries from which Namibia begs donor aid, I would give some practical suggestions to reduce wastage of public resources.
A few years ago the Government of Namibia gave an order for all ministers and their deputies to use Toyota Camrys in order to reduce expenditure on purchasing and maintaining luxury cars such as Mercedes and BMW. I guess this made some difference, but it appears this directive was not given to their subordinates i.e PS, Deputy PS, Under Secretaries, Directors etc, which implies that the Government gives them car allowances to buy the same type of cars they ordered ministers not to buy or use.So what is the difference? It is really amazing how countries that are begging are spending money on useless things like expensive cars and cellphones.Apparently senior Government officials do qualify for a cellphone depending on their rank.This implies that a deputy director’s cell phone differs from that of a permanent secretary.What an anomaly.A cellphone is just a cellphone – just buy them regular ones.I was astonished to see a senior foreign diplomat carrying an ordinary cellphone.It is a machine to communicate.Then I compare him to our guys.It is then I realised that our Government needs to do something to avoid wasting money on state-of-the-art gadgets.Furthermore, the legal maximum speed on our public roads is 120 km/h.I just wonder why the Government buys officials some of the biggest cars in the market as if they are going to race.President Pohamba and his PM still need to do something in this regard to reduce unnecessary costs.Expensive cars and cellphones have nothing to do with the development of this country but are only responsible for the underdevelopment of this country.I hear one parastatal has a policy not to provide cellphones to their staff who should be in office.I would like to compliment the Nampost CEO for his willingness to serve the people because he wrote a handwritten letter to all Nampost clients and even put his cellphone number there, which is a taboo to many executives in this country.There is money/resources in this country – we just need to manage them properly.Hola Damases WindhoekI guess this made some difference, but it appears this directive was not given to their subordinates i.e PS, Deputy PS, Under Secretaries, Directors etc, which implies that the Government gives them car allowances to buy the same type of cars they ordered ministers not to buy or use.So what is the difference? It is really amazing how countries that are begging are spending money on useless things like expensive cars and cellphones.Apparently senior Government officials do qualify for a cellphone depending on their rank.This implies that a deputy director’s cell phone differs from that of a permanent secretary.What an anomaly.A cellphone is just a cellphone – just buy them regular ones.I was astonished to see a senior foreign diplomat carrying an ordinary cellphone.It is a machine to communicate.Then I compare him to our guys.It is then I realised that our Government needs to do something to avoid wasting money on state-of-the-art gadgets.Furthermore, the legal maximum speed on our public roads is 120 km/h.I just wonder why the Government buys officials some of the biggest cars in the market as if they are going to race.President Pohamba and his PM still need to do something in this regard to reduce unnecessary costs.Expensive cars and cellphones have nothing to do with the development of this country but are only responsible for the underdevelopment of this country.I hear one parastatal has a policy not to provide cellphones to their staff who should be in office.I would like to compliment the Nampost CEO for his willingness to serve the people because he wrote a handwritten letter to all Nampost clients and even put his cellphone number there, which is a taboo to many executives in this country.There is money/resources in this country – we just need to manage them properly.Hola Damases Windhoek
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