Wasting of public funds ‘a crime’

PARLIAMENTARIANS need more clout when it comes to monitoring the public sector and its financial resources, Prime Minister Nahas Angula has said.

Opening the third annual conference of the Southern African Development Community Organisation of Public Accounts Committees (SADCOPAC), which opened in Windhoek on Monday, Angula said without proper powers, public accounts committees would “remain a toothless bulldog”. “Ineffective deployment of public resources is a crime, just as the misuse thereof,” the Prime Minister told the 150 delegates from 10 SADC countries, “therefore the oversight mandate of parliaments should be broader and should (already) start with the budget debate.”Parliaments should establish whether priorities in resource allocation in national budgets did correspond with national development plans and objectives, Angula further stated.When ministries and government institutions did not manage their budgets well, and this was confirmed by reports from the auditor general, they should be penalised in the next budget cycle, he proposed.The standing parliamentary committees on public accounts should be more than just the “moral conscience” of the public sector, the Prime Minister added.”Together with auditor generals, a public accounts committee should have teeth to punish culprits in the executive branch of government,” Angula proposed, drawing strong applause.”Without proper powers, public accounts committees will remain a toothless bulldog.I believe this is not the type of institution we want to nurture,” Angula said.One of the co-organisers, Dr Hubert Schillinger, Namibia country representative of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), said SADCOPAC was well placed to become a lobby organisation for good governance and accountability together with the African Organisation of Auditors General (AFROSAI).”As long as auditing offices are largely understaffed and under-funded and their reports can be ignored by governments and intrastate without impunity, there is a lot that still needs to be done,” Schillinger outlined.The Namibian Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Public Accounts, Johann de Waal, said training of MPs serving on such committees was essential.”We must always keep in mind that members of parliament, at least in Namibia, are not necessarily elected because we know how to read financial statements but because we can do a lot of talking somewhere under a tree in rural areas.””Ineffective deployment of public resources is a crime, just as the misuse thereof,” the Prime Minister told the 150 delegates from 10 SADC countries, “therefore the oversight mandate of parliaments should be broader and should (already) start with the budget debate.” Parliaments should establish whether priorities in resource allocation in national budgets did correspond with national development plans and objectives, Angula further stated.When ministries and government institutions did not manage their budgets well, and this was confirmed by reports from the auditor general, they should be penalised in the next budget cycle, he proposed.The standing parliamentary committees on public accounts should be more than just the “moral conscience” of the public sector, the Prime Minister added.”Together with auditor generals, a public accounts committee should have teeth to punish culprits in the executive branch of government,” Angula proposed, drawing strong applause.”Without proper powers, public accounts committees will remain a toothless bulldog.I believe this is not the type of institution we want to nurture,” Angula said.One of the co-organisers, Dr Hubert Schillinger, Namibia country representative of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), said SADCOPAC was well placed to become a lobby organisation for good governance and accountability together with the African Organisation of Auditors General (AFROSAI).”As long as auditing offices are largely understaffed and under-funded and their reports can be ignored by governments and intrastate without impunity, there is a lot that still needs to be done,” Schillinger outlined.The Namibian Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Public Accounts, Johann de Waal, said training of MPs serving on such committees was essential.”We must always keep in mind that members of parliament, at least in Namibia, are not necessarily elected because we know how to read financial statements but because we can do a lot of talking somewhere under a tree in rural areas.”