Around 175 personnel who formed part of the surveillance and control teams that successfully combated locust outbreaks in Namibia, are owed N.dollars 1.8 million by the agriculture ministry.
This is according to information availed to Nampa by aggrieved members of the teams who fought to bring the locust outbreak which wreaked havoc on crops – threatening food security – under control.
The team is composed of 59 members of the Namibian Defence Force and 116 officials from the Ministry of Agriculture.
The team worked for 40 consecutive days, spraying 1.4 million hectares of land under surveillance and monitoring.
According to official information, the ministry pays N.dollars 520 per day in daily subsistence allowance (DSA), but due to unfavourable economic conditions, it is unable to honour the normal DSA rate.
Instead, it committed to paying N.dollars 260 per day. Rough calculations indicate that each of the 175 individuals is owed N.dollars 10 400.
The delayed payments date back to March this year.
On top of this, the ministry owes its technical teams overtime claims. Nampa could not establish how much is owed in this regard.
“When we went into the field, some of us had to borrow money to cater for our DSA and food because the government promised to pay us on time. We also exhausted our savings. It is not fair for the ministry to just pay lip service. We worked hard and prevented what could have been a catastrophe,” said an individual who preferred anonymity.
In April, Namibia was struggling to contain the third wave of an African migratory red locust outbreak. At the time, it had destroyed 719 000 hectares of grazing land and 1 207 hectares of crop fields in 10 of the 14 regions.
In response to queries by this agency, the ministry said it would effect the payments within two weeks.
It said the total breakdown will only be available once all claims (both DSA and overtime) are verified in two weeks.
Although insiders confirmed that there are no funds available at this stage to honour this obligation, the ministry’s spokesperson, Chrispin Matongela was adamant that everything is under control.
“We would not refer to the payment process as delays, as we have to do verifications to avoid overpaying or underpaying our officials on their claims. This is not a new practice; it is a usual process, most especially when it involves overtime which can be a serious matter if not handled with caution,” he added.
Source: Namibia Press Agency
