Geingob impressed with Harambee

Geingob impressed with Harambee Officials submitting quarterly reports The Namibian leader says significant progress has been made regarding the implementation of the Harambee Prosperity Plan. Namibia's ranking as the freest press on the continent is one of the achievements celebrated under the Harambee Prosperity Plan (HPP), says president Hage Geingob.

This was said during the Harambee Review meeting last week where the president also expressed confidence in his administration to fully implement the HPP in the next three years.

“The year 2016 has been an eventful one. It is the year we shifted gear from planning to implementation. The year that we launched our HPP, in the same vein the year was also characterised by some headwinds such as a slowdown in global appetite for our commodities and a protracted drought,” said the president.

He added that significant progress had been made with rolling out e-governance to all government offices, ministries and agencies. The finance ministry's integrated tax management system will go live before the end of March next year.

An online payroll planned for the public service is expected to eliminate ghost employees while citizens will be able to apply online for legal aid by next year.

“These solutions are all aimed at bringing government services closer to the people and improving the efficiency of public service delivery. We are also happy to report that all government ministry websites have been revamped and are being actively monitored against uptime and updating of latest information,” said Geingob.

The president expressed satisfaction with the fact that all ministers, deputy ministers and permanent had signed performance agreements that are published on the website of the office of the prime minister as well as individual websites of ministries.

According to him quarterly performance reports are being submitted by officials.

“Although there are expected teething problems, analysis of these reports indicates that we are on course to achieving 80% of agreed performance targets as set out in the HPP. I would like to commend ministers for the positive manner in which they have embraced performance management,” he said.

The president said about 22 000 households in the Khomas Region had benefitted from the food bank that was established this year. Between June and October the government spent N$15.4 million on food parcels.

Under the Harambee plan 2 240 plots have been delivered by the government in Windhoek, Oshakati and Walvis Bay.

According to the president N$367.9 million has been allocated to qualifying local authorities to subsidise urban land servicing, of which N$151.8 million has been used.

To date 2 172 houses have been completed against the annual target of 6 000 in Mariental, Otavi, Karibib, Okombahe, Omatjete, Khorixas and Rundu.

STAFF REPORTER