Political Perspective

THE fact that our Foreign Minister has been on a visiting spree abroad, doesn’t necessarily mean we have a foreign policy worth writing about.

Ditto all the other trips that many of our Ministers and senior government staff have and are currently undertaking at great cost to our taxpayer in terms of travel, accommodation and of course, those gratuitous S&T allowances. Again and again we hear talk that such trips need to be minimised, but after short lulls, they again resume with full intensity and dubious returns or benefit to the country as a whole.SOME trips are doubtless necessary, but the vast majority of them aren’t, and simply gives these officials time and money to play and shop and generally have a good time in a foreign capital at our expense! No matter how vehemently they may deny, and egotistically emphasise the importance of these various forays abroad, I think most officials would acknowledge that in reality it was another expense our country could have done without. If they deny, then I would challenge them to come forward and explicitly tell us what the gains and benefits were and how it has changed our country for the better.Travel and exposure to other countries and societies is surely a wonderful thing, but in the modern world there are definitely ways in which we can also curtail our Government’s carbon footprint, quite apart from the costs to our Treasury of the multiplicity of trips.We have a number of missions and embassies abroad. And if it were possible for our Government to come up with coherent policies – not only with regard to foreign affairs, which is sorely lacking – but also in regard to financial prudence overall, we could ensure that those embassies and/or diplomatic presences situated in proximity to events that require our attendance, could represent rather than sending people from home soil to distant shores when it is not absolutely necessary.I wish it were possible for us to itemise for the public the number of trips and the amount of officials who take them every year and so let the people judge for themselves whether I am being unnecessarily critical or not. But it isn’t possible, at least not without a very time-consuming investigative process trying to access such information. But it is so that there are many trips and they don’t just involve one or two officials – but usually delegations.And if all that trip meant – in the case of Uutoni Nujoma’s most recent official trip to the Czech Republic – two foreign ministers engaging in mutual admiration, then I think there’s little doubt it could have waited until later.President Hifikepunye Pohamba, like his predecessor but with less conviction in this regard, I’m afraid, has made threatening noises about the costs about such trips and the Prime Minister’s Office has been requested to oversee and/or vet the number of excursions abroad. But I don’t think many have taken any notice, primarily because they know that with someone like Pohamba there won’t be any consequences if they disobey, or that he might not know about them anyway, since he may be preoccupied with other matters right now, particularly the health scare he recently had!I wonder if I cannot challenge the Auditor General to demand of the various Ministries lists of all the trips undertaken by their officials and top brass over the last year, and the resulting costs in terms of travel, accommodation and S&Ts, and compare it with a previous year. This is probably the only way in which we are able to tell if in fact any saving at all (and I doubt this!) has been realised, and if indeed, there have been any cutbacks by any of the Ministries in this regard. It is quite probable that ‘workshops’ will be one of the biggest cost culprits, often with scant good effect.Some Ministers in particular are clearly travel junkies, and it is really no secret who some of the main offenders are. Those who really like all the trips, and especially the trimmings that come along with it – the pomp, ceremony, protocol and of course, good shopping opportunities, not to mention the gifts.I think most Namibians, and that includes myself, are tired of the endless promises in regard to a number of things, but in this case, prudence with regard foreign travel. So it is time that we become more vocal and demand answers from Government as to whether there are really attempts to cut all but the most critical foreign travel; to prune the sizes of delegations; and to ensure absolute honesty and adherence to S&T rules and regulations and transparency to the public about who has travelled where and why and at what cost, and with what positive benefit to Namibians.