Garden town residents plead for PM’s intervention
Municipal finances murky
Residents of Okahandja's informal settlements again demonstrated in Windhoek on Friday. This time, the Namibian police accompanied the peaceful protesters to the gates of the parliament building, where they brought a complaint to the prime minister's attention.The group of “illegals” as they are known, are asking that Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, must intervene to make service delivery, development and opportunities for land ownership a reality for them.
According to the community activist Sethy Gariseb, people have been living in Okahandja's settlements all their lives without any improvement in their living conditions.
Last year, these residents dug trenches themselves to install taps closer to the community.
The group waited for the prime minister's representative, Mary Maswahu, director for human resources, administration and finance, to receive the complaint on the PM’s behalf.
The disgruntled residents with posters saying “32 years after independence and we are still suffering, why?” held in the air chanting “No land, no voice” as they waited.
Shanice Swartbooi, secretary for the concerned group of protesters, said: “We came from Okahandja and we decided we will not go back without an answer. Today I will read out the complaint again that we filed previously. Let's go through it again since we are being ignored. No answers have been provided to us, and we feel this is disrespectful.”
Earlier this year, the group invited the Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Erastus Uutoni, to intervene, but it was in vain, they say.
On Friday, Maswahu promised to hand over the complaint to the prime minister.
Audit
Meanwhile, auditor general Junias Kandjeke reported on the Okahandja municipality's finances for the financial year ended 30 June 2021 which was also tabled in parliament on Friday.
However, Kandjeke could not find sufficient audit evidence in the unfinished documents that the municipality submitted, to be able to comment with certainty on Okahandja's financial affairs.
Nevertheless, Okahandja's net assets have shrunk by N$15 million for the 2021 financial year. Property, plant and equipment assets owned by the town are worth a total of N$77.6 million, compared to N$81.4 million in 2020.
The books indicate that the municipality owns N$0 in stock.
The AG’s office suspects that the bad debt of N$7 million recorded may not be sufficient, especially since N$22.3 million was budgeted for it in 2020.
Kandjeke is also concerned about payments of N$4.28 million which do not contain any customer account numbers or dates
Okahandja's partnership with the power supplier Cenored may also no longer be worth N$24 million, according to the auditors who expect the financial books to also take into account Cenored's losses and debts. Cenored's debt to the municipality was reclassified to less important last year.
Furthermore, Kandjeke says that the municipality does not apply the 30-day leave limit published in the Government Gazette, debtors worth N$3.3 million are not listed, and the municipality has not budgeted for the 5% contribution to the regional council worth N$4.4 million.
In terms of income, there is a N$6 million difference between water invoices worth N$44 million, compared to financial statements of N$50 million.
The town also recorded water losses of 42%, much more than the acceptable standard.
The municipality was also unable to account for N$2.6 million and was also unable to provide the auditor general's office with records of town council meetings in January, February, April and May 2022.
The grant of N$10 million from central government for the financial year in question must also be returned, as invoices were not provided on time for the work for which they were budgeted for.
Okahandja's municipality has 54 open positions while salaries make up more than 35% of operational expenses, which means no new positions can be filled. – [email protected]