Scrap ‘paper policies’, focus on the people, urges President

PRESIDENT Hifikepunye Pohamba yesterday told his Government to do away with policies that are only good on paper and have no positive impact on people.

Opening the first-ever Cabinet retreat of his Government, appointed in March this year, Pohamba said there was a need to move to the next level – that of strengthening mechanisms to evaluate and monitor the implementation of programmes approved by the leaders. He said it was not good enough to introduce and adopt good-sounding measures – they have to be implemented fully and timely.”This is what good planning is all about.Without monitoring and evaluation, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to know the pace of our progress,” he told ministers, permanent secretaries, chief executives and union leaders.He said Government had meagre resources but would be able to do well if available resources were correctly used.”The process of identifying beneficiaries (of poverty-reduction programmes) and setting our priorities should be transparent, fair and free of corruption and mismanagement,” the President said.He cited as an example other countries with huge mineral resources but where the wealth failed to filter through the people.One way to avoid that was better co-ordination to eradicate duplication and wastage.”The right hand must know what the left hand is doing, and vice versa.We must learn to adopt best practices and discard wasteful and tardy methods in order to become a more efficient and effective public service,” President Pohamba said.National Planning Commission Director General Helmut Angula agreed.He said that Government and top leaders had to do away with the old way of doing things if they were to stimulate economic growth, investment and human development.He warned that contributions from international donors were declining and public debt was growing at a worrying pace.Pohamba said he was concerned that Namibia achieved an average annual growth rate of only about 3,7 per cent between 1990 and 2002.”The growth rate continues to fall short of the projected and desired level.Added to this unfortunate state of affairs, our country is becoming less and less competitive,” Pohamba said.He called for open, frank and constructive discussions.The delegates to the Cabinet retreat spent the afternoon discussing how to improve economic growth in the country.He said it was not good enough to introduce and adopt good-sounding measures – they have to be implemented fully and timely.”This is what good planning is all about.Without monitoring and evaluation, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to know the pace of our progress,” he told ministers, permanent secretaries, chief executives and union leaders.He said Government had meagre resources but would be able to do well if available resources were correctly used.”The process of identifying beneficiaries (of poverty-reduction programmes) and setting our priorities should be transparent, fair and free of corruption and mismanagement,” the President said.He cited as an example other countries with huge mineral resources but where the wealth failed to filter through the people.One way to avoid that was better co-ordination to eradicate duplication and wastage.”The right hand must know what the left hand is doing, and vice versa.We must learn to adopt best practices and discard wasteful and tardy methods in order to become a more efficient and effective public service,” President Pohamba said.National Planning Commission Director General Helmut Angula agreed.He said that Government and top leaders had to do away with the old way of doing things if they were to stimulate economic growth, investment and human development.He warned that contributions from international donors were declining and public debt was growing at a worrying pace.Pohamba said he was concerned that Namibia achieved an average annual growth rate of only about 3,7 per cent between 1990 and 2002.”The growth rate continues to fall short of the projected and desired level.Added to this unfortunate state of affairs, our country is becoming less and less competitive,” Pohamba said.He called for open, frank and constructive discussions.The delegates to the Cabinet retreat spent the afternoon discussing how to improve economic growth in the country.