By Engel Nawatiseb
ONDANGWA
The Trust Fund for Regional Development and Equity Provision is amending the provisions of the governing Act to make it operational as a fully-fledged State Owned Enterprise (SOE).
The fund was established by an Act of Parliament in 2000 and subsequently listed as a parastatal to respond to the developmental challenges facing the decentralization process in the country.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development Erastus Negonga who is also the chairperson of the trust fund lamented that the Board of Trustees could not effectively run the trust fund since its inception due to serious shortcomings of its enabling legislation.
The trust fund as a SOE has to comply with the relevant laws.
“In contrast however, the Trust Fund Act assumed the Board of Trustees being the policy makers, accountable managers and executives of the affairs of the fund. That is not good governance,” said Negonga.
He added that unlike the SOEs, the trust fund does not make provision for the Chief Executive Officer, neither does it assign anybody as an accounting officer nor make any provision for the appointment of the staff compliment to manage and account for operation and resources thereof.
Negonga was speaking at the opening of a consultative conference attended by mayors, local authority CEOs, village chairperson and secretaries contributing to the envisaged amendment process of the Trust Fund and Regional Equity Provision Act 22 of 2000 at Ondangwa recently.
Negonga stated that stakeholders were demanding the trust fund to allocate resources on equitable basis, while indeed it was not feasible to expect the fund to perform to the satisfaction of its stakeholders with so many limitations.
“Trustees are more concerned about the accountability of these resources, therefore the board has resolved not to disburse around financial resources to many small projects in all regions other than to concentrate on the bigger projects in a few local authorities, mainly on sewerage infrastructures and the construction of services,” he said.
Development partners and donors are reportedly reluctant to contribute to the fund because it is part of a ministry although the Act provide for the trustees to mobilize funds from all possible sources.
The autonomous status of the “Trust Fund” therefore is a necessary condition to generate financial resources for development.
It was learned that government has so far been the sole financier of the fund through an annual allocation of N$30 million in its development budget.
Negonga told participants that the review and proposed amendments to the Act were necessary to streamline and create a conducive environment for regional development to the expectation of all stakeholders.
Mayor of Ondangwa Naftal Andimba said his town benefited from funds from the trust fund to rehabilitate some old sewerage networks.
“If it was not for this assistance, my council alone could not have made it possible for this very costly project.”
He appealed to trustees to make more funds available to fast track developmental initiatives mainly for smaller councils and enable them to stand on their own in future.
The amendments will substitute certain definitions with new ones, amend provisions relating to the management of the fund as well as constitute the board of trustees and duties of the board amongst others.