WINDHOEK – The mid-year budget cuts tabled by treasury last week has forced the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development to freeze all its capital projects whose implementation has not yet commenced.

Minister of Finance Calle Schlettwein last week tabled his medium-term budget review that saw the urban and rural ministry budget being cut from to N$2.2 billion to N$1.9 billion.

In an internal memo last week, Urban and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Nghidinua Daniel instructed regional councils and local authorities not to proceed with procurement or entering into new contracts with either consulting engineers or contractors in respect of all capital projects.

Daniel in the memo said from their assessment the cut or reduction in the budget was effected on projects where there was a noted zero expenditure or where projects have started but there is only a 10 percent expenditure or below.
Daniel said the ministry is in the process of preparing memos to regional councils and local authorities indicating the specific projects that have been affected by the revised budget.

He said these criteria that have been used were communicated to all offices, ministries and agencies (OMAs) in the past financial years and all OMAs were consequently urged to expedite project implementation to avoid budget cuts.