By Mbatjiua Ngavirue WINDHOEK Public servants still owe government the astounding amount of N$20.8 million in unaccounted for subsistence and travel allowances, according to figures given by Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa). To make matters worse, much of the debt owed by public servants for S&T advances appears to date back many, many years and may now be unrecoverable. The 20.8 million is debt owed by public servants in government as a whole, but yesterday Scopa hearings dealt specifically with the Auditor-General’s report on spending at the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development. The outstanding S&T at Regional and Local government that is unaccounted for, and is unlikely to ever be recovered, totals N$338 000. The money was advanced to 126 officials of the ministry for travel-related expenses who then failed to submit claims accounting for how they spent the money. Some of the amounts owed date back as far as 1994 and 1996, with some officials having died in the meantime. Committee chairperson Johann de Waal, baffled by the failure of the ministry to recover the money, struggled to obtain satisfactory explanations from Permanent Secretary of Regional and Local Government, Erastus Negonga. De Waal wanted to know why the ministry could not recover the debts since many of the defaulters are well-known people, with some even members of his committee present in the room. To the great embarrassment of Swapo parliamenta-rian Loide Kasingo, she had to explain that the ministry never informed her that she was one of the culprits. The committee members mentioned names of several other prominent defaulters holding high positions in government and other public institutions. Negonga explained that the main problem was the switchover from the old computerised accounting system of the ministry in 2004. The switch to the new Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) resulted in many pre-2003 records being wiped out. He said that since October 2005, the ministry had started sending out letters and forms to many offenders with some of them cooperating, while others simply failed to respond. Director of Finance and Financial Advisor to the ministry Hilia Nghiwete said the ministry was only able to compile a list of S&T debtors by relying on old manual records. To complicate matters, some employees that were previously on the payroll of the ministry were now employees of various regional governments since the start of decentralisation. Negonga said the original amount owed by ministry employees was N$457, 000 so some progress had at least been made to bring the amount down to N$338 000. The officials from the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development pointed out that the Labour Act does not allow the ministry to deduct the debts from employees’ salaries. The law also does not allow the money owed to be recovered from civil servants’ pension monies. Furthermore, treasury regulations no longer allow the government to claim debts that have been outstanding for more than 30 days from employees. Negonga however gave the committee the assurance that under the new IFMS the ministry would not be able to issue S&T allowances without a reconciliation, which would determine whether a person owed the ministry money or not. De Waal worried that people would refuse to pay debts that are more than three years old because legally they would have lapsed. Clearly angered by the situation, Swapo committee member Elia Kaiyamo called for radical measures such as subjecting those defaulters that are Swapo members to severe internal party discipline. “Some of these people are very prominent, and they have been going from one promotion to another,” he complained. This idea seemed to find little favour with former Minister of Transport Moses Amweelo, who was heard to mutter that everyone should be treated equally, whether a Swapo member or not. “There is a serious problem between treasury regulations, the Labour Act and the pension funds that allow for all kind of loopholes,” De Waal noted. An official of the Auditor-General’s office however pointed out that government departments could institute civil claims in the form of a letter of demand. DTA committee member McHenry Venaani added that public servants who failed to pay debts owed to government should face normal disciplinary procedures for failing to adhere to standards of behaviour expected of any employee.