By William J. Mbangulaa OSHAKATI Lack of proper consultation between the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and the Oshakati Regional Council (ORC) is said to have cost government an amount in the region of N$70ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000. This money was paid to South African-based Namibian academic, Dr Joseph Diescho, for services that were not rendered. This was confirmed by the Governor of Oshana, Clemens Kashuupulwa, who reacted to allegations made against ORC and Swapo Party in the print and electronic media recently, following a purported leadership and change management workshop which was supposed to have been conducted by Diescho but which failed to materialize. It is alleged that some officials within the Directorate of Management Services in the OPM who have vested interests to enrich themselves, manipulated the selection system to appoint a consultant who later became a bone of contention between the ORC and the Office of the Prime Minister. Kashuupulwa’s narrated events led to the aborted event on December 7, 2006. The Deputy Director of Consultancy Services wrote a letter to the Chief Regional Officer of Oshana, John Kandombo, to convey the urgency of the team from the Directorate Management Services of the OPM to schedule a two-day training workshop in leadership and change-management for Oshana councillors, managers and heads of departments from February 1 to 2. But, on January 24, 2007, upon learning of the consultant whom the Directorate of Management Services had identified to conduct the workshop in Oshana, the regional authority contacted the Chief Efficiency Analyst and the Director of Management Services enquiring why prior consultations with the ORC had not taken place. ORC’s interests and appreciation of the letter from the OPM stem from the fact that they were under the impression of, firstly attending to senior officials from OPM who would present the said workshop, and secondly, to ensure the necessary logistical arrangements for the workshop. At no time, noted the Governor, did the officials from Directorate of Management Services at the OPM, the sole organizer of the workshop, inform Council that a consultant whom they had handpicked would conduct the workshop. Even Prime Minister Nahas Angula is said to have been kept in the dark about the contractual commitment with Diescho which was concluded in his office. Said the Governor: “The issue here is not whether the consultant is highly-qualified or competent or whether he comes from the Kavango Region, but rather that no proper consultations were entered into between the Directorate of Management Services of the OPM and ORC so that, as a sub-national government, we could timely pronounce ourselves on the matter at hand.” Kashuupulwa further explained that the issue of the identified consultant was tabled before the 1st Ordinary Council meeting when it was resolved that as no proper consultation was entered into between the two institutions of the government, the identified consultant could not be accepted. This is because Diescho has been known to blindly accuse the Swapo Party-led government and its leaders in an unjustifiable manner. And yet the government has done a lot to take Namibia to the level it is today. In his view, the decision was taken in light of the fact that the policies and programmes of the central government guide regional councils. It is therefore a fallacy, he noted, to expect governors to speak out against government policies and programmes, of which they are part, as regional councils are merely extensions of government at the regional level. As a result, it is within the power and mandate of the regional councils, Oshana in particular, to reject any political activities that want to bring anarchy and confusion to the region. On the basis of its responsibility to guard against irresponsible elements not penetrating and confusing the nation, Kashuupulwa told the press briefing that the resolution 1st /30.01.07/007 of ORC objecting to the Directorate of Management Services alleged hand-picked consultants still stand. He, however, advised those opposed to the ORC’s resolution not to personalize official Council resolutions. They, he noted, should also not attempt to engage in character-assassination and defamation of leaders in the region. The Governor said: “We take note of other people’s opposing views whose tendency is to easily lose the facts in search of conflicts, even where the case at hand does not warrant any confrontation. The unprofessional language employed by some misguided anonymous writer in the Informante newspaper of February 8th, 2007 and other callers to the Oshiwambo and English NBC Radio attacking the Governor and ORC’s objection to the services of Diescho, raise doubts as to whether they have at all read our response on the issue, or perhaps there is a problem of understanding it or any part thereof.