WINDHOEK – The Minister of Education, Dr David Namwandi, yesterday dismissed as grossly distorted a story that appeared in The Namibian newspaper concerning alleged under-spending by the ministry.
“I write to respond to the article that appeared in The Namibian on Friday, 11 October 2013, titled ‘Education returns N150m … despite pressing needs, shortages.’
Although the above article points out the reasons behind the under-expenditure, it fails to put the issue in context.
“The amount by which the Ministry of Education underspent its budget during the financial year 2011/2012, represents 1.74 percent of the ministry’s budget for the above financial year. Stated in other terms, the above represents an expenditure rate of above 98.26 percent on a total budget of N$6.8 billion,” explained Namwandi.
“The main area of under-expenditure is remuneration which takes up close to N$120 million of the N$150 million by which the ministry underspent. It must be borne in mind that the ministry has over 33 500 staff members on its payroll, and with daily changes in employment figures, coupled with remuneration related changes e.g. social security contributions, number of staff joining and leaving the housing scheme, and payments such as leave gratuity that cannot be accurately provided for, the ministry is bound to under-spend or exceed its budgeted amount,” said Namwandi.
“In addition, the shortage of qualified teachers experienced during the 2011/2012 financial year contributed significantly to the under-expenditure.
“The budget estimate formula provides for salaries of qualified teachers. The increasing shortage of qualified teachers, resulting in the employment of unqualified and temporary teachers who receive substantially lower salaries and reduced benefits compared to those of qualified teachers, increased the amount by which the ministry under-spent its budget. We have since adjusted our budget estimation formula to take account of the lower remuneration of unqualified teachers,” he explained.
“Although it is almost impossible to spend up to the last dollar of a huge budget, we fully understand that an under-expenditure of less than 2 percent represents a large amount that could make a difference to the needs of the nation.
“We have undertaken budgeting and expenditure control reforms that we expect to improve expenditure management and reduce inefficiencies and wastages,” he stated.
“With regard to the vouchers that could not be accounted for, the ministry launched an intensive investigation when it was alerted of alleged fraud cases,” said Namwandi.
He elaborated: “The audit took place amid the investigation into fraud that was carried out by the Anti-Corruption Commission. Although it is possible that some of the vouchers might have been destroyed during the alleged fraud, the audit took place during the time that we placed sensitive financial records under lock and guard by law enforcement agencies.
“We have been open and transparent about the cases of fraud in the ministry. Criminal charges have been laid against the alleged perpetrators of the fraud. We have also initiated internal disciplinary charges against the suspects,” he said.
“In the last two years the education ministry initiated interventions to strengthen the budgeting and budget management processes through the use of information systems and technologies.
“Currently the ministry is in the process of developing budgeting and budget management manuals and these efforts are accompanied by budget management training.
“We have also completed a human resources audit in three regional offices that revealed shortfalls in our procedures and processes. We are busy addressing those shortfalls. The human resources audit procedures have recently been transformed into a self-audit instrument that is being utilized in the remaining 10 regional offices,” he said, adding current efforts would result in sound management of finances.
By Staff Reporter