Namibia ‘Gained’ from Trip
Tuesday, 9th of October 2007
By Chrispin Inambao
WINDHOEK
The Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication has come out in defence of its recent mission to Canada, saying ten people were in the delegation to enable the ministry to effectively lobby for a seat on the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
The ministry paid N$773 138 in airfare, clothing allowances and subsistence and travel allowances (S&Ts) for the ten-member delegation, but the whole bill was a hefty N$847 138 when corporate gifts and a promotional video are put on the expense sheet of what is arguably one of the most expensive foreign trips by a government ministry.
Initially, the ministry intended hosting a media briefing a week ago upon the arrival of Minister of Works, Transport and Communication Joel Kaapanda, but instead he only spoke to selected journalists regarding the trip.
Addressing the issue, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary Shihaleni Ndjaba said the promotion video cost N$69 000 and not N$80 000 as reported while “only” N$5 000 was splurged on corporate gifts and not the N$30 000 reported earlier.
The ministry spent N$80 087 apiece on four of the delegates, N$119 983 on the minister, N$105 625 on Bethuel Mujetenga the director of civil aviation, while on Ndjaba, the permanent secretary, it had to fork out N$84 522.
Sources were aghast that some of the delegates were only going to distribute leaflets and would merely be spectators when aviation technocrats addressed other experts.
The ministry says it is always “very discrete and prudent in its utilization of the financial resources at its disposal”.
Despite the expenditure of N$847 138, the ministry claims it is fully aware of the directive to spend government money economically. It says it consciously applies principles of financial prudence when deciding on its spending priorities. The ministry says the event in Canada was of international significance while its benefits to the economy are enormous.
Responding to concerns from critics of the trip who were also in opposition to the promotional video, as they felt the ministry should simply have requested a ready-made video from the Ministry of Trade and Industry or from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Ndjaba said: “Tender Board exemption was obtained prior to its production.”
On the clerks given the nod for the controversial trip, he said: “The clerical staff were chosen to run the temporary election office and to carry out the necessary administrative work. I must in fact stress that these administrative/clerical staff did a wonderful job, as the election office that they manned produced most of the documentation and communications that were crucial in effectively running the election campaign.”
“The allegation that they were only there to distribute leaflets is an oversimplification of matters, for reasons only known to those who are spearheading the campaign against this victorious trip and event. These people were never meant to go and sit in the assembly, but to run the temporary office that we had at ICAO,” said the permanent secretary.
He explained the more senior and technical staff attended to the general business of the Assembly and sat in committees/commissions that had parallel sessions.
On the reason why Deputy Director of Human Resources Esther Kaapanda was delegated and not the beleaguered Under-Secretary in the Department of Transport and Communication Willy Kauaria under whom civil aviation resorts, he said the deputy director “played a role in among others lobbying in particular among the Arab community – due to her exposure to the Arab culture and language, and among the French-speaking member states due to her communicative French language and in general her good inter-personal skills and human relations skills”.
But sources are adamant the lobbying was not necessary because they feel the mission was a “fait accompli” even before this mission.
“There was nothing to campaign for,” stated a source that wished not to be identified.
Countered the PS. “Kindly be informed that under no circumstances were we guaranteed to win a seat without any campaign,” adding Namibia needed 86 votes and this is far more than the 14 votes that would have come from SADC of which it is a member.
“Also note that out of the 17 states competing only for 13 seats under Part III, Namibia scored second highest with 137 votes after Tunisia and this is a result of our profound lobbying among member states present at the Assembly,” he said.
Other contestants for the thirteen ICAO seats were Republic of Korea, Romania, Tunisia, Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and El Salvador among others.
“As the permanent secretary responsible for overall transport and aviation in Namibia, it is not at all far-fetched to attend such a meeting side by side with my minister who is responsible for the same sector at political level,” Ndjaba stated.
“The size of the Namibian team hardly matched the total number of the 1 435 participants that we had to interact and deal with. Participating states, some of whom we competed with under Part III, had delegates as much as 48, 40, 33, 30, 27 etc.,” he said.
Namibia presently collects annual revenue of N$48 million or N$4 million each month from over-flight charges while it also stands to benefit from the US$400 million pledged in scholarships and other assistance to Africa by China.