Over N$50m for Zim 'experts'
Insiders in the public service have criticised the amount of money being paid to foreign professionals at the expense of lowly paid and unemployed Namibians.
For a cash-strapped country which has now crossed the threshold to junk status – albeit challenged – Namibia is prepared to pay exorbitant amounts for expatriate skills.
According to documents seen by Namibian Sun, the Ministry of Works and Transport is paying N$697 130.45 per month in rental costs to 86 Zimbabwean professionals. The annual expense amounts to more than N$8.4 million.
The total cost to the country of the Zimbabweans is more than N$55.7 million per year. That includes a monthly transport expenditure of N$10 million, while the expats already receive travel allowances as part of their packages.
Compared to this, the total cost of 36 Namibian graduates employed by the works ministry is N$10.2 million, of which transport expenditure amounts to N$258 336.
These are figures from the ministry leaked to the media by frustrated officials.
“The country is paying too much for economic refugees; they're milking the government,” one disgruntled source said yesterday.
This source also questioned how the government could have employed the Zimbabweans, who are working at the ministry as engineers, architects and quantity surveyors, with hardly any work experience.
And this, the source said, while there were hundreds of unemployed Namibian graduates.
Many unemployed Namibian graduates, particularly engineers, architects and quantity surveyors, are now threatening to take works minister Alpheus !Naruseb to court for his decision to seek exemption for 29 Zimbabweans from registering with the Namibia Council of Architects and Quantity Surveyors.
Hundreds of unemployed Namibian engineers, architects and quantity surveyors said they would converge at the head office of the works ministry today with proof of their qualifications to dispel !Naruseb's assertion that there are not enough qualified locals.
The five-year contracts signed with the young Zimbabweans are the result of an agreement signed in 2012 between former Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
According to ministerial insiders the Zimbabweans are neither registered with any national professional board, nor have “traceable” working experience in their country of origin.
This agreement has expired in the meantime but it is understood that the Zimbabweans and other nationals are hard at work to persuade the works ministry to have it extended.
“This is to be expected because these people have been mining gold from government coffers,” said an insider.
“Here there is no corporate governance. It is a piggery; it can never get clean. Foreigners have now moved into the main Namibian house; the Namibians are living in the outbuilding.”
It is understood that there has been a proposal from within the works ministry that the secondment of Zimbabwean professionals be stopped.
According to a document seen by Namibian Sun, the current procurement system does not need the Zimbabweans because they haven't produced any tangible project since their arrival.
The main reason for this, it is explained in the document, is because government projects are decentralised to regional councils with a threshold of N$35 million for works and N$20 million for supply of goods.
CATHERINE SASMAN
According to documents seen by Namibian Sun, the Ministry of Works and Transport is paying N$697 130.45 per month in rental costs to 86 Zimbabwean professionals. The annual expense amounts to more than N$8.4 million.
The total cost to the country of the Zimbabweans is more than N$55.7 million per year. That includes a monthly transport expenditure of N$10 million, while the expats already receive travel allowances as part of their packages.
Compared to this, the total cost of 36 Namibian graduates employed by the works ministry is N$10.2 million, of which transport expenditure amounts to N$258 336.
These are figures from the ministry leaked to the media by frustrated officials.
“The country is paying too much for economic refugees; they're milking the government,” one disgruntled source said yesterday.
This source also questioned how the government could have employed the Zimbabweans, who are working at the ministry as engineers, architects and quantity surveyors, with hardly any work experience.
And this, the source said, while there were hundreds of unemployed Namibian graduates.
Many unemployed Namibian graduates, particularly engineers, architects and quantity surveyors, are now threatening to take works minister Alpheus !Naruseb to court for his decision to seek exemption for 29 Zimbabweans from registering with the Namibia Council of Architects and Quantity Surveyors.
Hundreds of unemployed Namibian engineers, architects and quantity surveyors said they would converge at the head office of the works ministry today with proof of their qualifications to dispel !Naruseb's assertion that there are not enough qualified locals.
The five-year contracts signed with the young Zimbabweans are the result of an agreement signed in 2012 between former Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
According to ministerial insiders the Zimbabweans are neither registered with any national professional board, nor have “traceable” working experience in their country of origin.
This agreement has expired in the meantime but it is understood that the Zimbabweans and other nationals are hard at work to persuade the works ministry to have it extended.
“This is to be expected because these people have been mining gold from government coffers,” said an insider.
“Here there is no corporate governance. It is a piggery; it can never get clean. Foreigners have now moved into the main Namibian house; the Namibians are living in the outbuilding.”
It is understood that there has been a proposal from within the works ministry that the secondment of Zimbabwean professionals be stopped.
According to a document seen by Namibian Sun, the current procurement system does not need the Zimbabweans because they haven't produced any tangible project since their arrival.
The main reason for this, it is explained in the document, is because government projects are decentralised to regional councils with a threshold of N$35 million for works and N$20 million for supply of goods.
CATHERINE SASMAN
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