By Mbatjiua Ngavirue WINDHOEK The former Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture incurred unauthorised expenditure of over N$167 million on its total budget of around N$2.4 billion in the 2004/2005 financial-year, according to the Auditor-General’s office. The government has since then combined it with the Ministry of Higher Education, with the combined ministry now known simply as the Ministry of Education. The N$167 million unauthorised expenditure yesterday became the main focus of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) when reviewing the ministry’s financial management for 2004/5. Committee chairperson Johann De Waal (DTA) said the Auditor-General’s audit of Basic Education for that year did not find that many problems in the ministry’s books. Those problems found by the Auditor-General were however very serious, especially the unauthorised expenditure. “If you have to exceed your budget by such a big amount something must be seriously wrong. You even seem to have problems paying salaries,” he remarked. Permanent Secretary of Education Vitalis Ankama tried to explain to the committee that most of the unauthorised expenditure resulted from having to pay remuneration to its employees. “The ministry has a very big establishment and over the years the money we have received from the Ministry of Finance has not been able to help us cover the whole ministry,” he explained. Ankama also pointed out a curious anomaly faced by the Ministry of Education, which meant its salary bill continuously kept ballooning. One of the biggest problems the ministry faced was that whenever teachers improved their qualifications the ministry would automatically have to improve their salaries. “This meant that if even a primary school teacher obtained a PhD the ministry would have to pay that teacher accordingly,” a bemused Ankama said. With the help of the Office of the Prime Minister, teacher’s salaries have however now been de-linked from qualifications. “This means that for the first time we will be able to determine beforehand what our salary budget for the year is going to be,” he said. Financial Advisor to the ministry Gerhard Beyleveld painted a bleak picture of the ministry’s finances in the short-term. According to Beyleveld, Basic Education needed N$285 million more than it was allocated in 2004/5 to cover an eight percent salary increase for employees approved in 2003, and another five percent increase in 2004. It also needed additional money for an EU/SIDA project, but in the end, it only received an additional N$141 million from Finance. Beyleveld warned the committee that unauthorised expenditure for the 2005/2006 financial year would be even worse than for 2004/2005. In 2005/6 the Ministry of Education wrote the Ministry of Finance a letter warning that it faced a shortfall of N$360 million, but no additional funds were allocated. The ministry now expects unauthorised expenditure for 2005/6 to reach a massive N$394 million. “In coming budgets we are strongly recommending to the Ministry of Finance that they must sort out this problem,” Beyleveld said. Having received an additional appropriation of N$220 million, the outlook for the ministry in the 2006/7 budget-year is set to slightly improve, with unauthorised expenditure expected to fall to N$140 million. Chief Accountant: Treasury at the Ministry of Finance Walter Haseb informed the parliamentary watchdog committee that the new Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) implemented by the government is designed to prevent unauthorised expenditure. The new system apparently prevents government ministries from issuing any cheques once they have depleted the funds allocated to them in their budgets. What is not clear is what happens then. Does the ministry in question cease all operations?