By:Kandjengo kaMkwaanyoka
Some of our problems donot really require International Monetary Fund and the Harvard Lab expertise. Not at all.
Especially on reducing public expenditure.
We just have to do unconventional little things which on aggregate will be impactful.
A few things I have observed all the years I have been reading trends and patterns are consistent budget deficit, government borrowing, fiscal consolidation, and freezing of capital projects.
All these are because the government does not have money or adequate revenue to continue on the same consumption pattern.So it unleashes fiscal consolidation- a reduction in public expenditure, focusing only on priorities.
I however have suggestions on how to save us a few more coins and unfreeze capital projects.
But first let me ask a silly question: is it really necessary for the minister, deputy minister, 10 directors, five constituency councillors and governor to travel to Okwalondo just to inaugurate a school block?
A whole fleet of Mercedes-Benz, D4Ds and Land Cruisers.
Our government will transport an extra minister to go introduce the vice president.
Secondly, the deputy minister will give a speech, the minister another speech, and three other directors from the same ministry acknowledging the presence of each other.
From the same ministry, why notcombine the speech and one official travel?
Is a comic show.
On a serious note, how will the government save funds with such behaviour from senior public servants?
What is the value of 10 senior civil servants travelling from Windhoek to Sadikongoro just to go inaugurate a garden or hand over agricultural equipment? Why can’t the governor do it if we are serious about cutting costs?
Is it necessary for every new tap, school block, borehole or material handover to be done by a minister? What value does it create beside all they go do is give a long speech reciting old glories?
The accommodation cost, the per diem, and the fuel costs for their Mercedes-Benz, D4Ds, and Land Cruisers for the ministers, deputies, directors and PAs.
That is what milking the government is. That is why we are borrowing, freezing valuable economic stimulating projects to fund unnecessary trips of official openings and inauguration of everything from the south to north, east to west.
The ministry of finance and the whole parliament are not serious about fiscal consolidation at all if they are allowing such petty travels and freezing of economically stimulating projects.
The ministry of finance’s head barely travels but all other ministers are all over the country handing over chickens, inaugurating gravel roads, or handing over t-shirts.
We went to borrow from the IMF for the first time. Do these ministers know the magnitude of that and its implications? We owe the African Development Bank (AfDB) around N$10 billion plus interest that needs to be paid.
Our overall debt is so big it can take up 70% of what the economy can generate. That is how scary it is.
So, Tate Shiimi needs to sit down with his colleagues and make them understand our fiscal crisis so they stop unnecessary travel and focus on their task in their offices. Most things that are not happening fast because ministers are always on the road, depleting treasury and taxpayers’ money just to go read a long speech somewhere in Zambezi region.
We have government representatives in the regions, governors and councillors. Let the minister email or WhatsApp his/her speech to be read by the governor and we channel such funds to projects such as re-training the staff and research in the ministry.
To reduce our budget deficit, we have to look into how we conduct government business and change how we do their work, how processes are built to support faster and more effective service delivery.
Our government can work to cut back the budget deficit by using its fiscal policy toolbox to promote economic growth, such as scaling back unnecessary government spending. We need to embrace continuously reform to be more effective, efficient, open and responsive to policy challenges.
The reform initiative should aim to deliver efficiencies by encouraging ministries to join up across areas of shared responsibility and shared need, allowing them to achieve greater impact by focusing on their core mission.
After all, the onus lies with the minister of finance as the custodian of taxpayers’ money to stop the bleeding of the fiscus by making sure that spending is restrained and properly directed.
Will Tate Shivutesit up and stop the bleeding of Namibia’s treasuryor will he allow the unscrupulous ones to milk us more with a trip to Uuvudhiya to inaugurate heaven knows what?