By Chrispin Inambao
WINDHOEK
Officials in the habit of augmenting their salaries with excessive overtime claims from seasonal calamities such as the floods in Caprivi are in for a rude awakening because a recent Cabinet Secretariat circular prohibits these claims.
In the past, it was an open secret that some Government officials submitted “overtime” claims on the basis they worked a seven-day-week without a break, though a huge amount of food from donors that was meant for displaced communities rots in a warehouse.
The food debacle resulted in several bigwigs within the Regional Emergency Management Unit (REMU) feeling the heat after being suspended before being reinstated.
Sources in the regions say some officials are not amused with the scrapping of overtime claims because they are of the opinion this may hinder them from executing their tasks satisfactorily as some tasks apparently last beyond prescribed working hours.
But the brief circular addressed to the Regional Governor, Bernard Sibalatani, and the Gabriel Kangowa, the Acting Director, overseeing all national emergencies, says: “No civil servant shall be considered for any overtime payment during this unfortunate situation befalling our citizens in the Caprivi Region, namely the flood.”
“This is the time that the nation expects patriotism, through voluntary service at the end of the official working hours. Any civil servants not willing to adhere to this directive and perform voluntary work after 17h00, are free to just go home and rest for the next day’s operations,” Frans Kapofi, the Secretary to Cabinet, states in the directive.
And in a development related to floods, Mbeuta Ua-Ndjarakana, the Permanent Secretary at Cabinet Secretariat, yesterday briefed several REMU officials at Katima Mulilo on how a sum in excess of N$1 million allocated to flood victims was spent on flood victims.
He said officials tasked with flood relief in Caprivi have procured tarpaulins, tents and plastic sheeting for thousands of displaced villagers housed at the relocation centres, according to a source that attended the meeting that took place at Katima Mulilo.
The tents and tarpaulins are said to be of a very high quality after being tested by officials from the Red Cross. And at yesterday’s meeting, the P.S commended the governments of Botswana and Zambia for giving transport access routes to the emergency operation.
The meeting was told an amount in excess of N$1 million used for the provisions distributed to displaced communities was appropriated from the N$10 million budgeted for floods.
It further transpired at yesterday’s briefing that the business community in the region has made donations in the form of tinned food and other provisions for displaced villagers.
Though the water level that reached its height last month is said to be subsidizing, it has inundated crop fields in Muyako in the vicinity of Lake Lyambezi.
Communal crop farmers, out of desperation, have been seen harvesting maize that is not yet ripe lest they lose everything and the NDF has assisted them to transport the maize.