Sawi Hausiky 

RUNDU – Kavango East Regional Council chairperson Damian Maghambayi is disappointed in the council’s overall performance.
Maghambayi said in an interview with Nampa on Wednesday, some directorates or divisions were not performing, and they needed to commit to developing the region.
He was speaking during a two-week meeting in Otjiwarongo, where council leadership and delegated function managers are reviewing the 2023/25 strategic plan and developing the five-year plan for 2025-2029. The meeting, which started on Tuesday, will end on 14 February 2025.
The chairperson said he expects the administration department to perform well as it is responsible for the procurement of goods and services.
Maghambayi said the necessary paperwork needed to procure certain goods and services are submitted to the department on time, but processing is often delayed.
“We have issues that require rectification in our internal audit as well. There is need to introduce an element of assessing budget execution,” he said.
Maghambayi added that at times the region struggles to implement certain projects as some divisions claim to have funding constraints, but at the end of the financial year, they discover funds that have piled up.
“How justifiable will that be? At the end of the day, we are being blamed as politicians that nothing is being done,” he said.
Maghambayi encouraged staff to improve performance to ensure service delivery that contributes to the upliftment of livelihoods in the region.
In 2023, the Auditor General reported that the regional council failed to submit financial statements for the 2021 to 2023 financial years while the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) released a governance assessment report in which it found Kavango East Regional Council was the worst performing among all 14 regional councils.
Maghambayi said the meeting in Otjiwarongo is focusing on addressing all these issues to ensure improved transparency and accountability.
-Nampa