Kuugongelwa-Amadhila warns against ‘oversight in name only’

National Assembly Speaker Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has called on parliaments across Southern Africa to expand financial oversight beyond central governments to include pension funds, medical aid schemes, state-owned enterprises, development finance institutions and even publicly listed companies.Speaking at the opening of the Southern African Development Community Organisation of Public Accounts Committees (SADCOPAC) training in Swakopmund on Wednesday, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila warned that oversight systems in the region risk falling behind the growing complexity of modern public finance systems.The three-day training, attended by about 100 delegates from 13 SADC member states, brought together public accounts committees, parliamentary officials, oversight institutions and civil society representatives from across the region.The event was themed 'Strengthening Oversight Capacities for Sustainable Development: Enhancing Accountability and Transparency in Public Financial Management'.“Governments today do not financially operate through the central Treasury alone,” Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said.“They operate through a network of institutions, public enterprises, local authorities, development finance institutions, pension funds, social security schemes, and public-private partnerships,” she added.She said these entities manage resources that are, in one form or another, of public consequence, underlining that “our oversight architecture must reflect this reality”.“When a pension fund manages the retirement savings of thousands of workers, when a medical aid scheme determines who can access healthcare and at what cost, and when social security institutions collect contributions from employees and employers across the economy, there is an undeniable public interest at stake,” the Speaker said.Structured accountabilityKuugongelwa-Amadhila pointed to practices in some advanced democracies in which executives of major financial institutions are summoned before parliament to account for bank charges, investment returns and executive compensation packages.“The principle is clear: where an entity holds, manages or profits from money that belongs to or significantly affects the public, some form of structured accountability must exist,” she said.She also challenged public accounts committees to move beyond checking whether procurement rules were followed and instead examine whether government spending produced meaningful developmental outcomes.“If a government committed to preferential procurement for small businesses or women-owned enterprises, did those preferences actually translate into empowerment?” she asked.“Oversight that stops at procedural compliance without asking whether the expenditure achieved its intended purpose is incomplete oversight.”Public debt concernsKuugongelwa-Amadhila further raised concern over rising debt levels across the region, warning that governments, SOEs, local authorities and development finance institutions are borrowing simultaneously, sometimes without adequate coordination.“Public debt in the SADC region has grown significantly, driven by a combination of developmental financing needs, pandemic-related expenditure, and in some cases, fiscal mismanagement,” she said.She warned that the fiscal health of governments is increasingly affected by the financial soundness of multiple public entities borrowing across the economy.The Speaker also highlighted illicit financial flows and the extractive sector as among the region’s most pressing governance challenges.“The SADC region is endowed with extraordinary natural resources, yet in too many instances, the revenues generated by those resources have not translated into commensurate development for our people,” she said.Kuugongelwa-Amadhila directly linked transfer pricing abuse, opaque extractive industry contracts and illicit financial flows to the loss of development revenue across the region.She further warned that parliamentary oversight loses credibility if resolutions adopted by legislatures are not implemented.“Oversight that does not result in action is oversight in name only,” she said.

Kuugongelwa-Amadhila warns against ‘oversight in name only’

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Namibian Sun 2026-05-22

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Kuugongelwa-Amadhila warns against ‘oversight in name only’

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Namibian Sun 2026-05-22

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