Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698147312862.pdf (Namibia)
1 Contribution to the motion by Hon.

U Maamberua.

Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members!

I rise to contribute to the debate on the motion moved by Hon.

Usutuaije Maamberua on 20 February 2013.

Honourable Maamberua called in the said motion for the establishment of a budget Committee and for a Mid-year Budget performance status report to be tabled by the Minister of Finance starting the coming financial year.
The Honourable member motivated his motion, on the basis that a local daily had reported on 18 amongst others, February 2013 that government had run out of cash.

The Honourable member argued that the institution of such reports will ensure that parliament will not have to hear about performance of the budget through the media.
the midterm report should amongst others, examine He proposed that cost increases and propose measures to deal with them, arguing that this will be in line with Article 126 of the Constitution.

Article 126 deals with the tabling of the budget.

Section (1) of article for the consideration 126 requires the Minister of Finance to present the National Assembly estimates of Revenue, Expenditure and Income for the prospective year.
2 Section (2) of the said article requires the National Assembly to consider such estimates and pass pursuant the financial Act(s) as are necessary to meet there to such appropriation of the state.

requirements The details of the financial Management Policies are contained in the State Finance Act.
In terms of section 27(1), of the State Finance Act, the Auditor General the end of the financial year but not shall, after the following year transmit a report on the accounts of government the minister who in turn shall cause it parliament within thirty days.

than the end of to to be laid on the table of later laws, of state Our resources and the accounting there of with specific tasks assigned to the allocation provide for adequately therefore, specific institutions carrying out of such tasks.
of the state and appropriate target dates set for the In terms of and income are drawn up by the executive (the Minister of Finance).

the estimates of (the constitution, revenue, expenditure The estimates passes an appropriation(s) are considered Act on the basis thereof.

by the National Assembly which then The determination of the form in which estimates of expenditure and revenue shall be presented to the National Assembly is done by the Executive (Minister of Finance).
The controls over and management funds by the executive is done of the utilization (treasury with of appropriated the assistance of Accounting Officer), while the Auditor General is to perform the watch dog function appropriated of monitoring and reporting on the use of the funds to the National Assembly after year end.
3 Significant progress has been made to improve the timeliness of the Auditor General's reports to the National Assembly with the report on the accounts of central government being submitted on time, while the backlog on reports of Regional and Local Authorities has been significantly reduced.
to determine the form in which estimates of Further, in terms of section 5 of the State Finance Act which empowers revenue the minister expenditure and income shall be presented to the National Assembly, information is provided to the National Assembly at the time additional of budget tabling which considerably improves Financial Management transparency and accountability.
These include, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework which outlines in great detail government estimates of revenue, income and They also include a over a three year's period.

expenditure government accountability report on the use of appropriated funds and challenges This report the results there encountered in meeting the set objectives and measures adopted to overcome them.
Government has also recently adopted a performance to enhance audit as a supplement transparency and accountability for public funds.

to the financial audits in order also indicates from.

that in terms of I must highlight the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, Namibia is more advanced than many of its peers who are In Namibia's case, the still on a single year framework for the budget.

financial plans are unveiled two years prior the to the tabling of appropriation bill.
Further, the expenditure plans are based on detailed Medium Term Plans contained in the MTEF and the National Development Plans.
This means that government's priorities and the resources to address them are proposed allocations determined well in advance of the budget tabling, of public 4 and is done in a very inclusive manner, with sectoral planning boards The National and development Planning Commission itself as a coordinator is on the basis of the Public Private Partnership principle with constituted its members drawn from across the wide spectrum of society.

of National Development existing in all committees regions.
In regard to the proposal Review Report from next year, to require the minister to submit a Mid Term I have outlined in my budget statements the efforts that are being made to enhance public finance management including transparency the use of public funds and the outcomes achieved from their use.
The reform robust that we to performance will systems and accountability both in terms of undertaking monitoring culminate in more reporting including regular also are of the budget and its and Cabinet on the implementation parliament outcomes.

Submission This includes a midterm review in the future.

of such progress reports should, however, not be used to re-introduce budgets as we have consciously moved away from that supplementary live within the as a way to improve financial management.
We must means of our states as determined the systems make adequate main appropriation.

limits set under by expenditure the financial Further, provisions for dealing with urgent needs.

to approach Parliament any time a ministry It is, therefore, cannot not necessary the live within its vote set under as treasury limits to deal with this only where a situation expenditure empowered with in terms of approached.

are media reports on this before parliament open society.
is adequately cannot be dealt be there in briefed as we live in an However, even in this case, we cannot avoid that the provisions that are available will parliament I will urge parliament to support the efforts that we are making rather than making ad hoc decisions that may not only not yield the desired outcomes but may divert us from progress that we are making.
s Now, I wish to comment on the allegations that government cash and that have to be diverted to finance the additional Old Age grants and the 8% salary increase.

run out of resources earmarked for capital expenditure will now funding requirements for First on the issue of government having supposedly run out of cash.

The Ministry has received a request additional N$216 million for Old Age and disability grants.
This came about because the line ministry took on board additional beneficiaries for which no appropriation has been made, following an intensified campaign to roll out the pension benefits to qualifying citizens.

from the Ministry of Labour for an As the ministry had not made provision on the budget for these funds, they had to be raised from other sources.

This does not mean that government has run out of cash.
In terms of the State Finance Act, any anticipated unutilized balances may be used to meet anticipated shortfalls others.

The required funds were, therefore, provided for under the State Finance Act and its treasury instructions.

raised by virementation of funds as With regards to the funding for the 8% salary increase, a/M/A's have been requested to use anticipated unutilized balances on the budget to meet the obligations related to this increase.
This is because the salary increase was agreed upon after the budget was approved already and there was thus no provision for it made on the budget.

Following a review of the expenditure of O/M/ A's, it was found that most of them can meet the cost of the increase from approved budgets as there are anticipated unutilized balances.

Given this, Cabinet decided that such balances be used to meet the salary increase payments.
6 There has, however, not been a directive to suspend or delay any planned capital projects in order to realise savings to pay for the salary increase.

Further, Cabinet is aware that the situation of funds remaining unutilized at year end is undesirable.
I have already indicated some of the measures being pursued to address this situation which include strengthening of additional staff at MOWT, capacity through the engineering the recruitment delegation by O/M/A's of some projects' and budgeting for multiple phases of projects stream lining projects of implementation including planning to the regions discontinuing ( i.e feasibility studies and designs phase vis-a-vis construction phase).
Further, under the reformed procurement the new bill is enacted, adjudication regime which will apply once tenders will be done by of smaller O/M/A's with some to be delegated to regions and local authorities.

The central tender board will only approve the award of large tenders.
While it is agreed that these funds are better spent for what they were initially appropriated, to full bottlenecks for now while efforts are ongoing to address the has utilization of appropriated funds, Cabinet decided to utilize these balances to address the funding requirements for borrow additionally the salary increase for civil servants in order to avoid having to for this at a cost, whereas there are funds that have already been borrowed, also at a cost.
For the future, expenditure which appropriate the correct way is to make provisions in the budget and to take on only that expenditure If has been made in the budget.

provision for all planned for the requirements procedures.

The concerned ministry has reiterated ensure that changes that has to be dealt with in terms of the standing to this is the case.
With regards to the salary increase, its commitment 7 government and the labour unions were able to agree to implement in the next year's the regarding only after provision is made for budget.

the two parties I believe that with continuous engagement would cooperate to avoid the challenges that we faced this year.

it We should as a country persist with the progress that we are making to Expenditure and Revenue reform our Public Finance Management.
forecasting is an important aspect of Public Finance Management.

We have achieved much over the years.

Over expenditure, although it is still experienced in some O/M/A's has reduced.

This means we are now better able to live within what we have for fiscal committed ourselves to under the budget.

This is important the current conditions of economic sustainability especially under slowdown.

We cannot want to go back to having additional budgets just because it is possible the law.
We should move forward and build further on the successesthat we have already realized.

Finally, n the contingency provision and whether it should have covered these additional expenditures.

The contingency provision was allocated foreseen unanticipated to cover, urgent to be provided for under the budget.

We should expenditures ought for contingency agree that provision should remain limited.
For now, to deal with this issues we utilized savings on the Medical Aid provision which was then from there to the viremented to the contingency provision paid out cater for the shortfall.

this should remain so and that emergencies.

the amount Normal I appeal to parliament that we do not proceed as proposed With this, under the motion and rather support our ongoing public finance reform.
The outcome of our public finance reforms will yield the same improved management of our public finances and enhanced public transparency and accountability that we all desire.