Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698747246294.pdf (Namibia)
Contribution by Honourable Meundju Jahanika of NUDO on the occasion of debate on national budget 2017/2018 24 March 2017 Honourable Speaker Honourable Members I rise to make contribution on our budget as tabled in this August House.

It is the third budget that I am making contribution about and so far I have not experience any change which was realized to the budget because of our debate in this August House which to me is just time wasting of debating the budget..
In the past I have requested the government to introduce the Budget Committee as one of the Parlia~tary Standing Committee but nothing was doneRther Honourable members who are skillful on finance in the house have also made contributions which warranted to bring change to the budget as far as allocation is concerned but no change at all.

Page lof4 Honourable Speaker Honourable Members Allow me to waste time again as the tradition of this August House.
I applaud the Minister of Finance for having work hard to balance the budget and reduce the burden of long term debt.

A stronger budget should support permanent or long term employment creation, economic growth and structural change and I request the government to come up with programme of radical economic transformation.
It is also worth noting that our National Budget is the official instrument through which we must in principle attempt to channel public funds in a responsible manner that aim to re-engineer our economy and spur it to greater height.

It does not need a scientist to diagnose the hard reality that our young people have been pushed into joblessness as a result of our government National issues.
I must remind our people that most of our citizens are systematically handicapped by poverty, deliberately consigned to the social and economic aspects of our country.

inability to be proactive on On poverty eradication it seems that our government serious with fighting poverty in our country because even in time of economic difficulties we still continue to allocate is not Page 2of4 more resources to the defence while we are not at war with anyone.
Honourable Speaker Honourable Members The insufficient allocation to the Ministry of Poverty Eradication is another indicator that our leaders pay lip service to the issue of poverty eradication as most of our people are drowned in crushing poverty.

These levels of poverty mock the constitutional provision that must be adhered to and implemented to the letter and spirit, clearly outlining the responsibility of the state to look after its population.
This budget fall short in providing a direction for broad development policies where human capital investment would be coupled with strategies to develop the private sector.

The budget is also very silent on some real issues such as the high public service wage bill.

The big government we have led to spending of lot of funds on public servants instead on service delivery and I advise that the government ~ smaller government reforms.
introduce a range of Page 3 of 4 Honourable Speaker Honourable Members in arresting this issue.

Therefore to me this One would have anticipated a broader and concise commitment budget is like a temporary allocation aimed at slowing down the free fall of the economy, but it fails to outline measures aimed at stimulating economic growth.
Honourable Speaker Honourable members The establishment of Revenue Collection Agency should not delayed further as it will help the Ministry of Finance to collect more revenue.

The current budget has failed to address the issue of land transformation and distribution to those who have lost land most which are Namas and Hereros as we look at the budget allocation to the Ministry.
Honourable Speaker Honourable Members I fully concur with the Minister's effort to fight corruption which has become the order of the day but the Minister alone will not fight corruption and all of us we must declare war against corruption which is in the form of tender's price inflation and in many more ways.

I support the bill Page 4 of 4