ONGWEDIVA – Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said infighting amongst local authority leaders and staff, coupled with unethical conduct, diverts attention and resources from pressing priorities, leaving the public underserved.
She said the government expects local authorities to embrace the principles of teamwork amongst the various stakeholders involved in governance and local development, professionalism, ethics, and integrity.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila made these remarks last week during the ALAN/NUST 2023 Good Governance, Leadership, and Project Management conference in Ongwediva.
The conference was held under the theme “To Enhance the Capacity of Human Resources for Efficiency and Effectiveness in Local Authorities”.
The prime minister stressed that to ensure the realisation of important interventions which are required for local authorities to cater for the needs of its residents, they must find innovative ways to raise revenue.
“They must also optimally manage the available resources to ensure value for money in order to achieve more with the limited resources that are currently available.
This includes the timely execution of agreed programmes to eliminate delays in service provision, and reduce projects’ cost escalations,” she noted.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila added that this also includes innovation to ensure efficient administration and effective service delivery to private citizens and businesses, as well as transparency and accountability.
She said local authorities play a leading role in fostering socio-economic development in their local areas by ensuring efficient and effective service delivery, and by attracting and nurturing businesses in their areas in order to support the growth of their respective economies and to optimise opportunities for employment and poverty reduction amongst their residents.
“The capacity of public institutions and public officials is a critical aspect of a high-performing government and integrity in the public sector,” she stated.
In addition, she said this promotes collaboration within the public sector, enabling them to optimise the existing capacity to promote an improved performance of public sector institutions, thus optimising the value from public investment in building the capacity in these public institutions to support national development.
Also speaking at the event was the Minister of Urban and Rural Development Erastus Uutoni, who urged local authority councillors to provide Namibians with excellent service delivery and to, when they are in office, shelve their political affiliations so that they can deliver the much-needed services to the electorate.
He also implored the councillors not to meddle in the administration affairs of the councils.
– fhamalwa@nepc.com.na