Budget: Jobless look to Calle

Finance minister Calle Schlettwein has been implored to address the high levels of unemployment in the country when he tables the 2018/19 national budget in the National Assembly today.

The advent of government's cost-cutting measures in 2015 signalled the start of massive job losses in the construction sector, with the Metal Allied and Workers Union reporting that it had seen up to 5 000 workers lose their jobs in 2017 alone as a result of spending cuts introduced to stave off the possibility of a downgrade.

With the release of the fourth-quarter growth figures for 2017, the Namibia Statistics Agency reported that the construction sector had contracted for a record seventh time, recording a huge decline of 36.9%.

The secretary-general of the Metal and Allied Workers Union, Justina Jonas, is hopeful that Schlettwein will address the issue of job losses in the construction sector.

The unionist said the construction sector was keen to see how the government planned to resuscitate a sector that had borne the brunt of massive job losses as a result of government's cost-cutting measures introduced to avert the risk of a downgrade by ratings agencies Moody's and Fitch.

“The issue of job creation in the construction sector must be addressed. Our focus will be on how do we bring back those jobs that were lost in the construction sector last year?” Jonas said.

According to a survey conducted by MANWU last year, 5 000 jobs had been lost as a result of the cost-cutting measures, Jonas had previously told Namibian Sun.

“The issue of the budget is affecting the workers. We do not know how long these budget cuts will be. Many workers have been retrenched and this is now also having the effects on the supply side. Many companies that supply building material are now also starting to retrench,” Jonas said.

The Construction Industries Federation (CIF) indicated last year that between 1 September 2016 and 31 March 2017, 30% of the workforce in the construction sector was retrenched.

Another point of interest to Jonas was how the Procurement Act would help support growth in the construction sector.

According to her, an evaluation would have to be carried out in the current financial year to ensure compliance with the new Act.

“It will be interesting to see how the new Procurement Act will be implemented. We want to know how the ministry plans to implement the new Act and how it plans to monitor the Act to ensure compliance. We have had these discussions with the minister,” said Jonas.

Independent analyst Klaus Schade said he was hopeful that the government would increase its social welfare spending in the new fiscal year while also maintaining spending in the infrastructure space.

“Government needs to continue prioritising expenditure in areas that address issues such as poverty and inequality through social grants and other social protection schemes, in areas such as health and education since these are investment into the future development of the country, and in infrastructure since investment in infrastructure will attract private sector investment and will create jobs not only temporarily, but permanently,” said Schade.

He also appealed to the government to increase spending on the provision of essential services.

“Sufficient funds need to be allocated to the purchase of essential goods and services such as medication, textbooks and stationery,” said Schade.

Sharing his thoughts on the new Procurement Act, he said it had to be used as a vehicle to provide greater support to local service providers.

“The new Procurement Act should be used to support Namibian businesses to the extent possible as long as they deliver quality products at competitive prices,” said Schade.

According to him, tentative reforms to address the government's wage bill needed to be introduced although he admitted that such measures would take time to yield desirable outcomes.

“More efforts are needed to reduce the wage bill. This should include a thorough review of the current structure of the public sector. Any adjustments to the number of civil servants, however, will take time,” said Schade.

Another area that would warrant a review was the contribution civil servants paid to be members of the Public Sector Employment Scheme, said Schade.

“There are other areas that warrant a critical review such as the Public Sector Employee Medical Aid Scheme (PSEMAS), since public servants contribute only about 14% to the total costs of PSEMAS,” said Schade.

OGONE TLHAGE