Kauandenge says ‘youthful budget’ a sham
The “youthful budget” presented by finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi earlier this year, has been questioned by National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) lawmaker Josef Kauandenge, who calls it a “grandstanding pronouncement”.
In his contribution to the midterm budget review in parliament last week, Kauandenge claimed that Shiimi had made progressively fewer attempts to demonstrate that the government had allocated enough cash for the youth sector.
“There is really little to show in this mid-review budget that honourable Shiimi had any targeted funds to allocate to youth projects, except these handouts from the food bank and disability funds. These are critical and much-needed interventions, but they are only temporary and have no long-term impact on the recipients,” he said.
“I’d like to know from the minister what targeted programmes are aimed at the youth sector in his mid-year budget because I couldn’t find any,” he questioned.
According to Kauandenge, the mid-term budget was tabled in the context of global and domestic cost-of-living pressures.
He said the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which started in February, has led to unprecedented increases in inflation and consequently a rise in interest rates across the world.
“Namibia is no exception to this, with inflation rates at their highest level since 2017, and interest rates increasing at an unprecedented pace,” he said.
He said Shiimi, in his mid-term budget speech, noted that this is a key risk to both the domestic economy and the fiscal policy path; however, at the same time, he emphasised the need to utilise the government budget to offer some relief from these headwinds, in addition to the reduction in the fuel levies currently in place.
He said any mid-term budget review plays a critical role in the entire budgetary process because it sets the tone for the fiscal framework for the next main budget.
“The budget is the most important economic instrument of government, as it reflects the country’s socioeconomic policy priorities by translating priorities and political commitments into expenditures, and this is important as one must talk and then walk the talk at the same time,” he said.
Kauandenge said the biggest problems facing the budget is the poor implementation of capital projects, which is a major concern for stakeholders in the economy and to a large extent influences the level of impact of the budget on the private sector and the economy.
“Whether the budget will meet up to the expectations of Namibians and deliver the promised change depends largely on the implementation of institutional and structural reforms targeted at improving the budget process,” he said. “It is disheartening to note as has happened on numerous occasions that some ministries return much-needed funds to treasury, for their failures to execute certain capital projects during that particular financial year,” he added.
He claimed that while this situation could warrant the said minister’s dismissal in several countries, Namibia rewards meritocracy and keeps such ineffective ministers in office or even promotes them.