Kuzeeko Tjitemisa
WINDHOEK – Minister of Economic Planning and Director General of the National Planning Commission (NPC) Obeth Kandjoze says that due to the limited budget the commission foresees challenges in executing some of its national activities.
He said despite embracing the notion of “doing more with less” the commission will be unable to execute the 2012 Pre-enumeration Population and Housing Census, Agricultural and Labour Survey and monitoring and evaluation of the National Development Plans.
“With our current limited budget allocation we may not be able to carry out the abovementioned activities which serve as sources of information for planning and decision-making at various levels,” he said, adding that, therefore, a limited budget hampers effective monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects.
Kandjoze said this in parliament when motivating the commission’s 2018/19 budget of N$161 million which represents an 8.5 percent reduction from the N$176 million allocated the previous financial year.
The budget allocation is premised on the implementation of the National Development Plan 5 (NDP5), macroeconomic research, data collection and planning and policy coordination.
He said while a lot has been achieved since the establishment of the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), which is allocated about 58 percent of the commission budget, more still needs to be done to strengthen the national statistics management.
“Capacity enhancement across the national statistical system is crucial to enable proper identification, prioritisation and tracking of the country’s development interventions to inform policy planning, decision-making and monitoring and evaluation,” he
said.
Kandjoze says during this year of reckoning, the NPC pledges to do its utmost best to ensure service delivery to citizens in an accountable and transparent manner.