Lack of budget a hindrance to development By Rachel JacobsPeople in communities usually make complaints about their elected representatives. “Our councillor is just sitting in that office doing nothing. We still do not have water in our constituency. After several years of independence, we still do not have electricity in our constituency, and our councillor does not care about it.” These are some complaints one is likely to face in local newspapers every day. These comments are coming from citizens who are rightfully aggrieved by persisting situations in their constituencies.
However the bigger question is: Are the councillors really not doing anything to address such situations? Are the councillors really ignoring such comments? Are they not seeing these comments? Are they really just “sitting in those offices” doing nothing? This therefore reminds me of a certain teacher Mpamire who once asked “What went wrong?” If the councillors are not ignoring this, then what is the main problem? Why are the problems in the constituencies still persisting? Why has nothing been done yet?
This is the main reason that triggered me to take this opportunity to write and engage astutely with the communities. This is to clarify one main issue that I strongly believe is the main reason that leads to the hindrances and distorted service delivery experienced at the constituency levels.
However before I go into the detail of what I want to emphasise today, I wish to orientate any interested reader on the historical development of regional government in Namibia. Before her independence in 1990, Namibia was ruled through a strong centralised government. All the services came from the central government. However, after independence a system of “decentralisation” was pursued and Namibia was divided into regional and local units. This was necessitated by Chapter 12 Article 102 of the Namibian Constitution. Regional councils are led by regional governors who are appointed by the president.
For a more decentralised system, regional councils are divided into different constituencies which are led by councillors. These constituencies are created inter alia to collect the concerns of the inhabitants and address their plight. Their major concerns are to cater for the needs of the people in a collective manner, taking them on in a smaller proportion in each region thus making it easy to address the specific problems facing specific people.
In so doing the constituency councils require different aiding materials that will therefore make it possible to address the problems of the people. The absence of these aiding materials results in distorted service delivery which consequently leads to inhabitants’ agony which may also lead to unnecessary distrust of the administration. The objective of this article is to address one of the bigger challenges facing the constituencies in their restless bid to cater for the needs of the people in their confinements and to provide the necessary services as required and rightfully deserved by their people.
In the modern world of globalisation and industrialisation for any normal organisation to fully perform its duties and functions, the financial phenomenon is inevitable. This means that money is the focal point where all things meet.
Each and every year a country passes a budget. This budget outlines how much the country’s coffers have and how much is channeled to which ministry. Surprisingly to any uninformed individual, the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development under which the regional government falls is also allocated its budget that it is expected to use in all its policy executions. The ministry allocates a portion to the regional councils in each region. This is where the trouble starts. The constituencies have no proportioned constituency development fund allocation (CDF) of how much each constituency should get for its performance. This therefore makes it difficult for the constituencies to address many (of course not all) of their plights.
Based on experience, there are different problems in different constituencies. Some constituencies have problems of high unemployment rate, high crime rates, massive alcohol abuse and some other major problems. These problems are well-known to the constituency councillors because it is to them that these problems are reported to and it is also to them that these problems are observed under thorough investigations. It is also clear that because of the experience of their environments they are in a better position than anyone else to know how best to handle these problems. It is therefore undisputedly clear that the main and probably only reason why constituency councillors are unable to tackle problems as they arise is because they do not have the means to do so. They rely heavily on the regional council for funding in order to handle probably not all but some of the problems facing them before they reach the level of escalation.
If a new legislation was to be enacted which allows the regional councils to allocate budgets to constituency councils, one could say, there mind be a visible change even though this does not guarantee 100% service delivery. I should also use this opportunity to heed a call to our communities. The Namibian government from the central government down to the constituency level has the interest of the people at heart. It is our obligation to serve all Namibians with no exemption. The nation should understand that their problems are not ignored at all. The issues arising in the societies are not overlooked. The government is willing to serve all Namibians accordingly.
It remains an uncontested issue that Namibia is still a developing country. The term developing does not ignore its fiscal status. Namibia is still growing financially. I therefore use this opportunity to request for the people’s patience because if they do so, then slowly but surely we will continue striving to get where we need to be as nation.
*Rachel Jacob is fourth-year student studying towards a Bachelor’s degree in Public Management at the University of Namibia. She is councillor of the John Pandeni Constituency and also serves as the chairperson of the Khomas Regional Council.