EDITORIAL: Public funds wastage
The National Assembly’s directorate for committee services’ activity plan for July to September, a period which will see lawmakers spend about N$15 million to attend workshops and other committee work, speaks to the gross level of public funds wastage.
A huge chunk of this budget will cater for daily subsistence allowance for travelling lawmakers - this despite many of these trips not yielding the desired returns.
In most cases, especially on international trips, our lawmakers relegate themselves to mere conference attendees. At times, some even return home without making single contribution at the events they attend.
Apart from returning home and tabling reports which bring little value to the lives of ordinary Namibians, Namibia as a country gets little in return for its financial commitments.
This situation has been worsened by treasury’s failure to control excessive spending on the travels of public officials.
We have heard and seen how S&T has become a great source of wealth for public office-bearers. In some cases, such allowances even exceed the salaries of these officials, and many end up looking forward to S&T more than their salaries.
The exorbitant ministerial S&T budget is a sign of a financial system that is vulnerable to abuse. That’s why most ministries are comfortable returning money allocated for development to treasury, but the S&T budget is depleted quickly.
A huge chunk of this budget will cater for daily subsistence allowance for travelling lawmakers - this despite many of these trips not yielding the desired returns.
In most cases, especially on international trips, our lawmakers relegate themselves to mere conference attendees. At times, some even return home without making single contribution at the events they attend.
Apart from returning home and tabling reports which bring little value to the lives of ordinary Namibians, Namibia as a country gets little in return for its financial commitments.
This situation has been worsened by treasury’s failure to control excessive spending on the travels of public officials.
We have heard and seen how S&T has become a great source of wealth for public office-bearers. In some cases, such allowances even exceed the salaries of these officials, and many end up looking forward to S&T more than their salaries.
The exorbitant ministerial S&T budget is a sign of a financial system that is vulnerable to abuse. That’s why most ministries are comfortable returning money allocated for development to treasury, but the S&T budget is depleted quickly.
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Namibian Sun
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