Mayor defends pay hikes

Walvis Bay Mayor Immanuel Wilfred has assured the people of Walvis Bay that there will be no reckless disregard of the public purse.

His remarks come in the wake of recent media reports on anticipated increases in allowances and remuneration packages for Walvis Bay municipal councillors which he maintains might have been interpreted incorrectly.

A daily newspaper published an article citing a leaked memorandum dated 30 August which apparently indicated the approval of hefty monthly allowance increases amounting to millions of dollars annually, as well as new transport allowances for ten political office bearers serving on the town’s municipal council.

The mayor explained that the proposed new allowances will not be out of sync with those paid by local authorities in the same category.

He added that the CEO was tasked to review the total packages following an instruction by the chairperson of the council and the management committee, prompted by a number of reasons.

“The last increase came into effect on 1 July 2013 and no other increases were implemented since. In its current format the remuneration does not compensate elected office bearers appropriately.

They have to take unpaid leave from their places of employment and at times make use of their own or public transport to attend municipal activities.”

The mayor further explained that existing remuneration packages are not in line with the responsibilities and activities of councillors contained in the Act.

He emphasised that the current remuneration packages of Walvis Bay office bearers is significantly lower than that on other schedules of the Act.

For this reason, the mayor said, the administration submitted a proposal which has not been implemented yet for consideration by the full council and used the following criteria to determine proposed allowance increases: The annual staff salary increase was used as a fair benchmark for increasing the monthly allowances and the payment of a fixed cell phone allowance was found to be the best practise compared to buying phones for councillors and paying the monthly fees for calls made.

According to the leaked memorandum, the mayor will earn more than N$500 000 per year. His proposed new monthly allowance amounts to N$31 327. This excludes an N$18 000 (N$1 500 per month) allowance for cell phone use and N$82 000 a year (N$6 833 per month) in transport allowances.

Deputy Mayor Hilka Erastus will earn N$25 834 per month as a fixed monthly allowance and will receive N$1 500 for cell phone use and N$5 694 for her transport allowance. The councillors will receive the same amount for attending various meetings.

The chairperson of the Management Committee (MC) Tobias Nambala would earn about N$26 000 a month.

His transport allowance is set at N$6 264 per month.

MC members Paulus Kauhondamwa and Ndishoshili Nghilumbwa will receive N$23 088 per month in fixed allowances. Alternate MC member Saara Shailemo will get N$20 779 per month. The other five ordinary councillors will each pocket N$18 700 in allowances and N$4 555 for transport each month, as well as a monthly cell phone allowance of N$1 500.