Agricultural reporter Deon Schlechter places Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF) John Mutorwa on the spot over the ministry’s returning of N$450 million to Treasury between 2011 and 2013. This was revealed in a 2013 summarised government report tabled in the National Assembly, in which Auditor General Junias Kandjeke expressed concern over the failure by ministries to use allocated money for development.
New Era (NE): MAWF’s return of N$450 million to Treasury makes its one of the biggest culprits and Kandjeke’s response to that in his report was that “this huge expenditure could have been used for development programmes.” Why was this amount returned?
John Mutorwa (JM): The agriculture ministry failed to fill top positions, while close to N$270 of the N$450 million was returned after work on the Neckartal Dam project in the South was delayed.
NE: Why the under-spending in Main Division 01 (Office of the Minister)?
JM: The trips for the Minister and the Deputy Minister were mainly due to invitations and it was very difficult to predict how many trips they would undertake, however fewer trips took place than anticipated and the trips for the bodyguards as well as the drivers were also affected, thus this resulted in an under-spending.
NE: What were the reasons for underspending under Main Division 05?
JM: The Directorate underspent due to the fact that it could not fill critical positions such as three Chief Agricultural Scientific Officer, one Deputy Director for Engineering and two Chief Engineers. This was because most of the applicants did not meet the stringent requirements for these positions like registration with the Council of Engineers and staff members within the Ministry who are unable to jump ranks from entry level to chief positions.
NE: Role players noted with surprise the underspending for the Green Scheme Programme. Why did that happen?
JM: The under-spending under the Green Scheme programme was due to the fact that the supplier failed to supply the tractors on time, thus resulting in under-spending under this main division.
NE: Why did the ministry underspend on planning and development?
JM: The under spending was attributed to the fact that vacancies that were not filled, including the position of the Director which were vacant since July 2013. The chief position was complicated by the challenge that was brought about by the incumbent chiefs who were demoted to the lower level through the regrading exercise. The directorate did not have many resignations or retirement of staff, therefore little payment for leave gratuity was made. The other contributing factor was that funds requested for professional services for the attaché in Belgium-Brussels was less than budgeted, thus resulting in under-spending.
NE: There was also unders-pending on agricultural training…
JM: The under-spending was due to the fact that no suitable candidate were found to fill the vacancy at Mashare Agricultural Development Institute (MADI), but the position has been re-advertised during the period under review and applications have been received for further processing. Only one candidate qualified for the position that was subsequently interviewed and recommended for the attention of the Public Services Commission.
The vacant post of the Senior Agricultural Technician at TAZAC has been advertised and applications were received for further processing and the interviews were conducted in the third quarter of the financial year under review and a successful candidate was appointed and assumed duties on June 01, this year. The new requirements following the regrading means that Agricultural Scientific Officer should be in possession of a qualification which equivalent to NQF Level 8, which is having an implication on recruitment exercise. This is further corroborated by the fact that it is a technical Ministry and we need specialised individuals in critical areas of agriculture, water and forestry. This is not easy and the ministry therefore administers a bursary to fund either staff members or individuals in the public Service to study further in critical areas. We have one staff member who successfully completed a degree in Horticulture in Tanzania, but cannot be translated in a Scientific Officer due to the new entry requirement. Also, one Scientific Officer post is earmarked for a Mechanical Engineer to be based at TAZAC as we are transforming both TAZAC and MADI to become vocational training centres. However, due to unattractive remuneration package for this job category, we find it difficult to find suitable candidates. This person will be responsible to be the Head of the Workshop section in both training and management. Four staff members went on retirement and some were moved from the Division, which also led to savings.
NE: Why did the ministry underspend on the Stampriet Transboundary Groundwater Investigation?
JM: The Stampriet Transboundary Groundwater Investigation is a joint study with neighbouring countries and is partly funded by UNESCO, therefore UNESCO funded a consultancy service for data compilation and DWAF was supposed to fund the workshop, which did not happen.
The quantification of the National Groundwater Resources of Namibia: The call for interest to carry out the study and develop methodology was advertised for tendering but no suitable bid was received. For the second part, there were tendering challenges Nam Water /DWAF drilling exercise and the tender was not completed by end of the financial year.
Water Quality Laboratory: The quotations to purchase the required analytical equipment could not be obtained on time, thus results in under spending.
NE: And what caused underspending for rural water supply and sanitation coordination?
JM: The under-spending under this main division was due to the fact that recruitment of some key positions proved to be difficult because of professional registration requirements. The other reason was due to the delay with the excavation of the Neckartal Dam as a result of seasonal factors such as rain, which affected the heavy-duty machinery to have access to the site.
The other major reason was that most of the tenderers/contractors were SME`s who encountered difficulties in securing funding and Performance Guarantees that resulted for the roll-over of expenditure for the year under review because construction only started to the beginning up to the end of the last quarter of the 2014/2015 financial year.
NE: What caused the under-spending in the Forestry Division?
JM: The under-spending was due to the fact that most of the tenderers for fencing material indicated telephonically could not be delivered due to the inflation in prices and Tender Board did not want to approve their requests on time.
Ministry of Finance failed to provide supplier codes for new companies in time and therefore delaying the printing of orders, which resulted in companies not delivering material in time and payment, could not be effected. Some of the tenderers could not be traced to deliver the orders as they provided non-existing contact numbers. Some contractor services were delayed by the slow pace of orders being printed therefore they could not provide the Directorate of Forestry with their progress payment certificates on time. Although some contractors have forwarded their progress payments to Ministry of Works on time, Ministry of Works failed to submit these documents to DoF before the due date, which caused some orders to be cancelled.