PRIME Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila told parliament on Tuesday that some government officials intentionally ignore ministerial advice by appointing their preferred candidates in regions to ensure they controlled power and tenders.
She made these remarks during the debate of the proposed changes to the law governing regional councils, which proposes to give more powers to the urban and rural development minister.
One of the proposed changes to the law states that the appointment of a chief regional officer should be done in consultation with the line minister. A chief regional officer, also known as the chief executive of the regional council, is the chief administrative officer in the regions. The current law states that the regional council appoints a chief regional officer “after consultation with the minister”.
The amendment proposes that the appointment should be done “in consultation with the minister”.
“We had a situation where a municipality did not have a chief executive for two years,” she said, adding that this was because of local councillors and officials who were pushing agendas.
This debate divided lawmakers. Some said the change would put more power in the hands of central government.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said regional councils could not have their cake and eat it, in terms of employing the chief regional officer.
“We have had many instances where the guidance of the minister is ignored,” she said, adding that qualified candidates for positions were ignored in favour of people who were lowly ranked by recruiters.
Preferred candidates, according to her, were mostly appointed to serve other interests, such as dishing out state contracts or to instal powerful connections.
“Most of them are fighting for power and tenders. That’s a mockery of the consultations [with the minister],” she said.
In fact, the premier said she has received several suggestions since 2015 from regional officials who wanted to ignore decisions of the Public Service Commission.
The PM said regional officials approached the line minister for consultations knowing that they were going to ignore the ministerial guidance.
She said the changes to the law would remove the impulse of regional officials to ignore the minister’s input.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila indicated that the human resources policies for sub-national government structures that include regional and local authorities should provide for checks and balances in the recruitment, disciplining and dismissing of staff.
“The amendments to the Regional Councils Act are seeking to achieve this. Regional councils will still appoint chief regional officers but in consultation with the line minister,” she said.
Some lawmakers said the proposed changes to the law would give the minister too much power, but the premier insisted that the minister would not be acting alone but in consultation with Cabinet.
She said Cabinet would not condone unlawful actions by ministers and if the executive realised that it made a mistake, that decision would have to be fixed.
Some members of parliament claimed the latest amendments were similar to the decision to give the President powers to appoint regional governors instead of them being elected by regional councils.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said the President, as head of state, takes responsibility for every decision of government. Even at local authority level, she claimed.
“If something goes wrong at the regional council, he has to take responsibility. The buck ends with him,” she said.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila was supported by, among others, attorney general Sacky Shanghala and safety and security minister Charles Namoloh.
Namoloh, a former minister of urban and rural development, said people expected ministers to intervene in problems at local and regional authorities, such as misuse of funds, but do not want to consult the minister when an official is being appointed.
Swapo back-benchers Bernadus Swartbooi and Veikko Nekundi, the UDF’s Dudu Murorua, DTA duo Vipuakuje Muharukua and McHenry Venaani expressed concern over the insertion of the words “in consultation with the minister”.
Muharukua questioned how far the current administration will go in trying to control and erode the powers of state entities in the interest of handing powers to one person.
Swartbooi said the proposed plan to force consultations opened the door for subjective decisions since a legitimate recruitment process could be disregarded because the proposed candidate was not favoured by the minister.
He said the proposed changes would turn regional councils into ministerial sub-offices controlled from the urban ministry’s headquarters.
The premier said she does not understand why the appointment of chief regional officers should not be approved by the minister when most state sector appointments were authorised by other state bodies.
