Broke Namibia at the end of the road - Smit

Namibia has arrived at a point where it can no longer afford to pay exorbitant monies to more than 80 boards that supposedly oversee a multitude of government entities, with no tangible results.

This is according to Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) parliamentarian Nico Smit, who delivered his contribution in the National Assembly last week on the recently unveiled midterm budget.

Smit said the economy is at the end of its road and government is to blame.

He said the economy has been strangled with red tape and an army of civil servants, who do not add one cent to the prosperity of the private sector.

He said contrary to the picture that finance minister Calle Schlettwein wanted to convey, the budget statement itself and the accompanying adjusted schedules are the most condemning evidence that government can only keep its financial apparatus running by borrowing more.

“Essentially, the minister has confirmed what most Namibians have known for quite a while, but few have wanted to acknowledge, and that is the government is broke; its spending deficit will continue to be bigger than its budget, and it can sustain its own expenses only by borrowing more, again much more than what it is willing to reveal in the budget,” said Smit.

“On the government's calendar, six months still lie ahead. Somehow, it must make ends meet between now and the end of March next year.”

According to Smit the only option now is to take away small cosmetic amounts and reallocate them to priority votes, to try and prevent a complete meltdown and collapse of government services for people who are most dependent on them.



Development budget 'plundered'

Smit said in his main budget at the beginning of the year Schlettwein said the development budget had increased by 12%, but he did not mention that he plundered it in the 2017 mid-term review, bringing it down to a paltry level of 8% of total expenditure.

He said the PDM wants to know what percentage of total expenditure the development budget has been reduced to.

“Among all the impressive statistics and comparisons, there is no reference to what level future productive investment has been reduced to. The only clear indication is that N$1.79 billion has been taken away from investment and fed to the insatiable government machine.”

Smit said further a quick reference to the two schedules at the end of the mid-term budget shows that most votes used about half of their funding, as it should be.

Only three votes stand out as exceeding their allocations by large measures. These are the transport, trade and the information ministries.

In the development budget, a different picture emerges with only two votes showing good execution rates. They are the police (44%) and the defence ministry (67%).

“It seems, there is always an excuse for underperformance and always reasons for more spending.”



Defence reallocation under fire

Smit said there is no reason for the defence force to get a bigger allocation in the midterm review.

“In fact, there is no reason why defence should get a N$6 billion primary allocation in the first place. We are not at war with anybody, there is no civil strife that must be contained, there are no immediate natural disasters other than drought and there is no other external threat to our political stability.”

Smit also referred to the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN).

He said it is inconceivable that they need N$10 million more in a year without elections. “Their request for more funding is supposedly for voting equipment, but they have only used 35% of their allocated funding from April to September this year.

“Furthermore, their execution rate of their development budget is zero, indicating they have not bought any new equipment. The electoral commission has asked for N$6 million more for maintenance and N$4 million more for other services and expenses.

“This is not an election year and the equipment they use was bought brand new for the previous elections. How can they now need N$6 million for its maintenance?” Smit asked.

He suggested that government should consider using some of the country's foreign reserves to kickstart the collapsing economy.

“If we now use N$4 billion to invest in the economy to turn it around, we are still at a very comfortable four months of import cover, and even if we were to use N$8 billion, we would still be above the IMF benchmark.

“Without tangible short-term interventions we will not get the economy to respond and the budget process will continue to be reactive,” he added.

ELLANIE SMIT