Ministries return N$270 million to treasury
Eight government ministries returned a total of N$273.7 million to the national treasury in 2019.
The eight auditor general reports tabled by finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi in the National Assembly last week cover the 2018/ 19 financial year.
The Ministry of Works and Transport returned around N$72.2 million to treasury, its report indicated.
As for the home affairs ministry, it returned around N$48.3 million and the bulk of its under expenditure is attributed to the ministry’s failure to fill most vacancies, while an amount of N$18.1 million reserved for Namibian passports was not used as the procurement of the passports never happened.
The agriculture ministry returned around N$ 46.6 million to treasury. Kandjeke’s document reveals that of the N$1 958 090 000 the ministry received from treasury during the 2018/19 financial year, only N$1 911 496 392.50 was spent.
“Although the accounting officer has provided reasons for the under expenditure, it is of utmost importance to plan properly and accordingly to avoid this kind of practice in the future as these funds could have been utilised for other programmes,” Kandjeke said.
The land reform ministry returned N$ 42.7 million to the pockets of government and failed to resettle Namibians as per its own targets, the report said. Out of 26 landless Namibians, only 13 were resettled.
Kandjeke noted that during the first quarter of the 2018/19 financial year, the ministry had targeted to resettle three people which did not happen, despite the acquisition of 5 234 hectares (ha) of land.
“In the second and third quarters, the target was to resettle eight people in each quarter, yet only five and seven were resettled in the second and thirds quarters respectively, although 8 179 ha of land was acquired in the second quarter and 29 821 ha in the third quarter,” Kandjeke said.
S even people we re earmarked for resettlement in the last quarter, but only one person was resettled against the acquisition of 31 443 ha of purchased land.
The fisheries ministry returned N$21.3 million to the national purse. That year, the ministry collected N$267.4 million from fishing quotas.
In the meantime, the justice ministry is also guilty of under expenditure of N$23.4 million when it returned N$ 37.3 million during the period under review.
“The under expenditure was caused by the upgrading of the High Court.
The contractor could not complete the project due to financial constraints,” Issaskar Ndjoze, the executive director, informed the auditors in his notes.
The safety and security ministry safety and security underspent its budget by N$3.8 million while the judiciary returned N$955 451 to treasury.
Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa- Amadhila recently warned executive directors to ensure that money requested is spent because the government is charged interest when it takes out loans and bonds, just for money to be returned to state coffers. -Nampa