The Office of the Prime Minister provided food assistance to 284 462, inclusive of 33 105 marginalised communities’ households through the drought relief programme.
The latter group is normally catered for by the social welfare ministry.
The revelation was made by Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila this week when she gave a report on how the OPM’s budget for the 2023-24 financial year (FY) was executed.
During the National Assembly, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila also wanted buy-in from her colleagues as to why they should support her office’s N$1.1 billion budget for the 2024-25 FY.
During the 2023/24 FY, OPM received a budgetary allocation of N$1.12 billion, of which N$1.1 billion was exhausted, translating into a budget execution rate of 98.6%.
Her budget motivation started on a rather dry note in the face of a drought, whose grip on the nation refuses to loosen.
“Against a budget of N$892 million, as at 28 February 2024, the expenditure under the drought relief programme stands at N$361.6 million, of which N$307 million was expended towards food assistance, while the logistics costs take up N$33.7 million. The cost of livestock support in the form of subsidies to participating farmers was N$7.2 million. The cost of N$13.8 million was expended towards water provision,” Kuugongelwa-Amadhila accounted.
The drought relief programme entails food assistance to households, livestock support programme to farmers and water provision.
The year 2023/24 FY started with a drought spell. As a result, the drought relief programme, which was ongoing from the previous financial year in Kunene, parts of Erongo and parts of Omusati, was rolled over to last year.
The programme was later extended to Omaheke, Hardap and //Karas regions, following a rapid assessment of the drought situation and to the rest of the 14, following a vulnerability assessment and analysis, which revealed conditions of food insecurity in all 14 regions, she said.
Mitigation
She further said the national risk profile was developed after risk assessments were finalised for all 14 regions.
Fourteen hazards were identified in the process.
The OPM will now develop the national disaster risk resilience strategy, considering the identified risk profiles.
The OPM also developed the Commodity and Beneficiary Management Information System (CBMIS), which enables the digitisation of data of beneficiaries, and the issuance of vouchers to beneficiaries.
The vouchers are redeemed at local contracted retailers, and beneficiaries collect their food parcels from there.
“The transition to vouchers eases administrative and logistical costs associated with food delivery, storage and distribution. It also minimises the risk of pilferage and waste of drought relief products, and it promotes support to the local economies in the different localities, as vouchers are redeemed at the local retailers,” she said.
A rollout of a voucher system is now underway, with a pilot voucher system implemented in Oshana’s Okatana constituency.
Currently, 2 276 beneficiaries are benefitting from the voucher system.
Excellence
During the last FY, OPM recorded some achievements, which Kuugongelwa-Amadhila trumpeted on the day.
Chief, she said, the performance management system (PMS) is functional in all the government’s offices, ministries and agencies (OMAs) with the development of strategic plans, annual plans and performance agreements.
“The performance agreements are, however, not yet fully cascaded at all functional levels, with compliance more achieved at higher levels. There is a need to further simplify and automate the tools for PMS and improve cascading performance agreements and reviews thereof to all levels,” she said.
Additionally, payroll audits are conducted in all OMAs annually.
“These audits have improved accountability for payroll expenditures. Anomalies that were detected at the commencement of the audit have been addressed. As a result of the payroll audits, the recent report reveals that no ghost workers are detected in the public service,” she noted.
What is more, she also reported on the strategies introduced to contain the wage bill in the public service.
“These measures include payroll audits reform of the Psemas, which include improvement in the administration of the scheme, which has hitherto led to reregistration of all members, and pointed to non-public servants who had been fraudulently enlisted into the scheme and are now removed,” she stated.
In addition, the public sector innovation policy implementation is also in full swing, she said.
During the year under review, 284 Cabinet decisions were issued to implement OMAs, and 43% of the Cabinet decisions were fully implemented.
The implementation of the remainder 57% of the decisions requires a longer time, and their implementation is ongoing, she said.
During the period in question, N$33.8 million was spent on 38 State and official funerals, while N$2.9 and N$3.1 million were spent on commemorations of Independence Day and Heroes’ Day events, respectively.
Motivation
For the current FY, OPM needs N$1.1 billion to execute its functions, the Premier said.
Of this, N$1.06 billion will cater for operational expenditures, while N$41.2 million will go to capital projects.
The office has seven priority programmes.
For coordination and administration of government leadership, N$21.9 million has been earmarked.
“This includes coordinating the performance management of ministers through quarterly assessments, as well as coordinating inter-ministerial and multisectoral forums and committees, such as the high-level committee of the second land conference, gender advisory council, national food and nutrition security council, among others,” she explained.
For the coordination of disaster risk management, N$717.4 million has been set aside.
The allocated budget will cover the expenditure associated with the drought relief programme, conducting the annual vulnerability assessment and analysis, the operationalisation of the National Emergency Operation Centre, and the development of the National Resilience Building Strategies.
“The current drought programme for the 2023/24 will end on 30 June 2024. However, the rainfall pattern has started to show drought and low grazing patterns in most parts of the country. As a result of this, the office will conclude assessment on the immediate interventions needed to save lives and support livelihood due to imminent drought in 2024,” she stated.
To champion public service management, N$73.5 million has been budgeted.
It is under this programme that OPM coordinates the management of the public service by ensuring an appropriate governance framework and enforcing compliance by all OMAs.
Also, this year, OPM started drafting the Public Sector Administration and Management Bill, and initiating the public service skills audit to determine the competency requirements and ensure fit-for-purpose structures in OMAs.
For the improvement of the constitutional obligation of the Public Service Commission, N$35.3 million will be needed.
To improve information technology in the public service, N$80 million is earmarked.
“Through this programme, the office provides IT support to OMAs, including coordination of the automation of government services (e-government). Part of the allocation is for the acquisition of IT infrastructure, such as hardware (servers), to capacitate the hosting environment for online IT solutions,” she motivated.
Photos: Nampa