Political parties represented in the National Assembly have received no less than N$608 million from Treasury since 2019 – through parliamentary funding. These public monies are hardly accounted for, New Era has been established.
The figures are contained in answers provided by the finance ministry, following a probe.
During the 2019/2020 financial year (FY), the political parties received N$116.5 million from the State kitty. The following FY, they received N$118.1 million.
Meanwhile, during 2021/2022, government’s funding for political parties reduced sharply to N$104 million. Last year, the funding jumped to N$120 million.
For the current financial year, the government has set aside a whopping N$149.5 million. It remains unclear if next year’s general elections were factored into this year’s increased funding.
The political parties seemingly enjoy carte blanche in terms of how they spend taxpayers’ monies.
The Electoral Commission (ECN) has since embarked on tightening the noose with regard to political party funding at a time when the ruling party, Swapo, has been accused in court papers of having benefitted from the Fishrot scandal through fishing quotas under the guise of ‘governmental objectives’.
To address this, the Electoral Act must be amended to give the ECN oversight powers similar to those allocated to other institutions of the State, such as Parliament or the Auditor General (AG), the ECN said.
Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa was unavailable, as she was locked in meetings.
Cash loans
Some political parties have used the money to pay off loans, salaries and others to run the day-to-day operations of their respective organisations.
Paying off loans with party funding, derived from Parliament is unlawful, the commission said.
One of the political parties implicated in paying off loans with public funds is the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM).
According to reports, some of the party’s money – derived from taxpayers – has been diverted to pay off personal loans of some bigwigs, used to pay party leader McHenry Venaani a second salary, while six ousted parliamentarians have now also been added to the party’s payroll without clear terms of reference. The latter group earns around N$35 000 a month.
Back in 2014, Venaani allegedly loaned then DTA – PDM’s forerunner – N$400 000 for that year’s election campaign, as the party’s coffers were empty against future projected parliamentary seats as collateral.
Other senior party members, such as Nico Smit, have also bankrolled the party under similar circumstances.
“We still owe one or two leaders where negotiations are going slow. I was repaid after five years. My money was fully repaid… PDM is an open party. We just got an unqualified audited financial statement.
It shall be released [and] you will see the figures right there,” Venaani said during a recent interview.
PDM has disputed paying their leader a second salary.
Instead, monies paid to the president were referred to as a “token of appreciation” for Venaani’s work for the party by its secretary general, Manuel Ngaringombe.
The law is clear that funds allocated to political parties may not be used directly or indirectly to pay any remuneration, fee, reward, perquisite or other benefits to any person representing the political party or organisation in parliament, any regional council or local authority council.
“Therefore, the money cannot be used to pay off loans, and any information to that effect should be brought to the attention of the secretary to the National Assembly,” ECN boss Theo Mujoro said.
Accountability
The general status is that political parties seem to encounter difficulties with submitting the necessary documents regarding compliance with sections 139, 140, 141 and 158 of the Electoral Act, 5 of 2014, that deal with financial reporting.
The assembly has 104 members, of which 96 members are directly elected through their party lists.
At the moment, Swapo, with 63 seats in the assembly, receives a bigger chunk of the funds.
They are followed by PDM with 16 seats, the Landless People’s Movement with four, and the National Unity Democratic Organisation, United Democratic Front, as well as Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters have two seats each.
The Rally for Democracy and Progress, Christian Democratic Voice and Swanu complete the seats with one apiece.
Each party is funded based on the number of seats it has in the house. The more seats a given party secures, the more money it receives.
A seat earns a political party slightly over N$1 million annually.
In 2020, only 10 political parties out of 23 submitted financial statements. In 2021, only seven political parties submitted financial statements to the commission.
“They are funded through parliament, because all funding of offices, ministries, agencies and others are being done through the ministry of finance – and since it is taxpayers’ money, parliament needs to discuss this in an open forum. This is the current arrangement,” Mujoro said.
Last year, only 11 political parties out of 23 submitted financial statements.
“Some of the smaller political parties expressed a lack of funds as the reason they are not able to approach an auditing firm, registered with Public Accounts and Auditors Board, to perform an audit on their books,” Mujoro added.
The commission is also proposing the amendment of the Electoral Act by an insertion that the commission may determine other ways of reporting than audited statements.
This could include reports by accountants or affidavits by the political party, explaining why they cannot comply with the Electoral Act.
Compliance
The ECN has often complained about how parties blatantly refuse to account for public money.
In terms of the Electoral Act, there are several options to compel them to comply.
But each of those options comes with its challenges.
For instance, Section 140 (6) of the Act provides that if a political party or organisation does not lodge its audited accounts with the commission, the commission may cause the accounts concerned to be audited by an auditor appointed by ECN.
“The question, however, is how will the commission enforce this if the party does not have money to appoint their auditor,” Mujoro pointed to a dilemma.
Another option is for the auditor general to audit the books and records of accounts and financial statements relating to monies allocated to them by parliament.
“This section is, however, only applicable to parties represented in parliament,” Mujoro added, a version seemingly contested by AG Junias Kandjeke.
“We don’t have the mandate to follow [public] money beyond parliament,” Kandjeke said last week.
He said unless the law is amended, his office cannot audit accounts of political parties that receive State funds.
“There is no law [for the AG] to audit political parties.
ECN has that power. But in terms of good governance, it is good to know how the money is used. [But] I cannot go outside my line. I will have no legal basis to stand on,” Kandjeke said.
More so, ECN is also empowered to suspend the allocation of monies to a represented political party if it is satisfied on reasonable grounds that the political party has failed to comply with any requirement of the Act.
The money allocated to political parties is paid in four equal instalments, each within three months of the previous payment, starting in April of the first year in Parliament.
The technocrat and former journalist added: “Lastly, section 188 provides for criminal offences relating to political parties and organisations, and provides for sentences for any contravention of sections 140, 141 and 158. This option would, however, entail that the CEO should open a case with the Namibian Police, and the matter will then be enrolled on the court roll, which has challenges of its own regarding time frames”.
– emumbuu@nepc.com.na
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