Opposition want Cabinet reined in

OPPOSITION members of parliament want president Hage Geingob to order his Cabinet to open up to scrutiny to improve accountability.

Opposition members of parliament also want the government to increase budgetary allocations for parliamentary oversight committees because they are “heavily incapacitated, and the executives are not open to scrutiny.”

The MPs spoke to after Geingob had opened the ninth session of the sixth parliament in Windhoek yesterday under the theme ‘Promoting Integrity, Accountability and Professionalism’.

The president urged MPs to uphold and adhere to certain professional and ethical standards, and behave according to strict codes of conduct.

Geingob also reminded parliamentarians to be accountable and fight corruption to restore public trust in the government, and improve their attendance during parliamentary sessions.

He likewise encouraged parliamentary standing committees to continue their oversight functions, to “investigate the government, and conduct public hearings on pertinent issues such as gender-based violence”.

Among those who criticised Geingob’s statement was Swanu’s Usutuaije Maamberua, RDP’s Mike Kavekotora and the Popular Democratic Movement’s McHenry Venaani.

In an interview with , Maamberua said the president was not serious with his statement about accountability because he did not address the core fundamental issues that can bring about accountability.

Maamberua added that accountability would not improve, at the moment, as long as the executives keep refusing to account to parliament.

He said parliamentary standing committees responsible for holding the executives to account are also incapacitated and heavily underfunded, which makes it difficult for them to carry out their work.

“I think the president’s priorities are upside-down. Instead of telling his Cabinet members to account to parliament and to subject themselves to constitutional oversight provisions, he is talking about attendance and punctuality, like he is talking to schoolchildren,” he stressed.

Maamberua added that “the crux of the matter is that the executive is not submitting to the oversight bodies of parliament, and in the same vein, the oversight committees of parliament are underfunded and understaffed”.

Maamberua said the president could have called his Cabinet to order to change their behaviour if he was serious about accountability.

“He was supposed to call the executive to order. Accountability will not improve by the better attendance of parliamentarians to parliamentary sessions. Accountability will be improved by the willingness of the executive not to defy the orders of parliament,” he stressed.

“He is only using the word accountability for the public to think that he is concerned about it, but the fact of the matter is that he did not show seriousness as far as that is concerned,” he added.

Maamberua’s sentiments were echoed by Kavekotora, who pointed out the challenges faced by parliamentary oversight committees.

“Last year, we had a situation where accountability came with scrutiny, and we as members of parliament could not scrutinise the performance of the executive because they denied us the resources to do the scrutiny”, he noted.

Kavekotora added that he wanted to see a change in the budget allocated to parliamentary committees since the president had also mentioned their importance in a democracy during his speech.

“So, I hope they take note so that at the end of the day, resources are allocated to the committees, specifically the public accounts committee, because we need money to do certain things such as forensic auditing. I hope they take note of that because I am going to take note of that,” he said.

Venaani, for his part, was not impressed with the president’s statement because there was nothing new in it, and it showed that “the president has no new agenda for the country”.

Venaani said the president’s declaration of accountability was a “huge joke. Who accounts to who? If he wanted this year to be for accountability, he was supposed to start with the reports that are gathering dust, and the SME Bank saga. That is where we should start from”.