Smit tears into mid-term budget…says it resolves nothing

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The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) said the N.dollars 2.2 billion mid-year budget review resolves nothing as public debt continues to soar and there are no jobs in sight.

Nico Smit said this on Tuesday while responding to the mid-year budget tabled by Finance Minister, Ipumbu Shiimi, in the National Assembly a fortnight ago.

According to Smit, it boggles his mind how government’s technocrats and politicians expect strategies that failed over the past 30 years to yield different outcomes.

“The government thinks it can run and grow an economy based on flash-in-the-pan signature events like investor conferences, at which nothing concrete materializes, and from which nothing is followed up. But it cannot. It is a delusion, and I assume we will continue to follow this chimera for as long as there are individuals who can still benefit from the process, to the detriment of everybody else, and of the country as a whole,’ Smit said.

At the heart of Smit’s contention is lack of good governance, outright theft and corruption that appears to have engulfed the public sector.

“Your motto is ‘steal as much [as you can], just don’t get caught,” Smit said, referring to local authorities that continue to receive qualified audit opinions.

Another issue highlighted by Smit was Namibia’s post-independence generation on its own.

‘It is more than 25 years since we first started working on the framework for a National Pension Fund and still there is nothing other than quasi-academic fluff every now and then.”

Smit further took issue with the 8.6 per cent budget deficit, saying whether it is at 6 per cent of 12 per cent, it remains worrisome as it should not exceed 4.5 per cent.

Adding to the discussion was Rally for Democracy and Progress leader, Mike Kavekotora, who was unhappy about the management of the public purse.

“Do we have the right leadership to lead this economy to success? No. Does the Swapo [government] have the understanding and political will to drive this economy forward? No. This economy has gone to the dogs,” he charged.

In his speech two weeks ago, Shiimi said government has taken deliberate efforts to address unemployment.

“Government is fast-tracking the implementation of other components of the SME Financing Strategy to address youth unemployment. The Collateral Guarantee Scheme (CGS) has been rolled out with N.dollars 9.5 million in loan approvals secured, 58 per cent of which were extended to youth-owned businesses,” Shiimi said.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency