Some bills are a financial drain, says DTA

Some bills are a financial drain, says DTA DTA lawmaker Nico Smit has suggested that the passing of the Witness Protection Bill would lead to the creation of yet another state-owned enterprise or agency, which he felt was unnecessary in light of the economic headwinds the country is facing.

Speaking during the debate on the bill in the National Assembly, he said: “Since the commencement of this session bar one bill [Nature Conservation Amendment Bill 2017], each and every bill that has been tabled in this House has sought to create new institutions or bodies to do work that is currently to some extent already being performed by somebody else. Given the country's current financial constraints, as legislators, we need to be more cognisant of the financial and cost implications of the bills we pass.

“It seems to be that the general approach to fixing structural and systematic deficiencies is to create new ministries, agencies or in this case, a new directorate. All these directorates must of course have highly qualified staff and highly remunerated directors and so forth.

“Similarly, an advisory committee must be created to advise on policy matters. All this is well and good, to create a new institution to fix existing shortcomings. The trouble, however, is that this new directorate that will be created will be primarily composed of staff designated or seconded from the public service.”

He continued: “The same people who have been failing to ensure sufficient protection to witnesses so that they may feel secure enough to be willing and competent witnesses, will now most probably be shifted to this directorate and be asked essentially to perform the same tasks that they have previously failed at.”

According to Smit, directorates and ministries are created to help correct deficiencies, often the one after the other.

“The solution to every institutional deficiency in Namibia is not to create a new directorate or ministry at considerable cost to the taxpayer, especially during challenging economic times.

“It is this line of thinking which has seen the public wage bill balloon completely out of control. Once created, these institutions are not held to account, but should there one day be another deficiency identified, in all likelihood another bill will be tabled to create another institution to address the deficiency.

“As lawmakers, our thinking needs to be immediately shifted away from thinking that our role and focus should be to create new institutions, but rather it should be to debate and discuss innovative ways to amend existing laws and the functioning and scope of exiting institutions to respond to our current needs.

“Efficient witness protection does not necessarily require a new directorate. Instead, what is required is that the existing institutions, being the police, the office of the prosecutor general and the judiciary, be given the enabling powers and financial backing required to ensure proper and sufficient witness protection.”

STAFF REPORTER