Mismanagement and corruption depleted state coffers – Beukes

THE state coffers have been milked dry through looting, mismanagement and incompetence, according to Workers Revolutionary Party leader Hewat Beukes.

Speaking to Nampa on the state’s precarious financial situation, purported by international reports claiming the government’s insolvency, Beukes said the government was in a serious man-made financial crisis.

Without providing figures, Beukes said the Namibian state “is bankrupt and is hiding behind the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) in the form of getting loans”.

He further charged that Namibia was not reaping maximum revenue from its vast natural resources.

“The amount of wealth that is being taken out of this country through the extraction its mineral reserves are far more than what this Government knows. With it goes billions of revenue that should have been in the state coffers,” he lamented.

Beukes’ remarks come after international reports posited that Namibia is “broke” owing to the recent ban of political office bearers from outbound travel and thousands of Namibia Defence Force personnel that were sent on leave.

The directive said the President has led by example by containing his own travel expenditure by only undertaking absolutely critical outbound travel and with smaller delegations since assuming office.

Responding to these claims, minister of finance Calle Schlettwein dismissed the assertions.

According to the minister, the government is being more prudent and efficient in its expenditure as was requested and not ‘broke’ as purported by certain quarters.

To back this stance, the minister said, “we are doing what is right to improve the quality of spending. Those are the interventions. It’s not because you are broke, it’s the right thing to do.”

As for the state of the Namibian economy, he said the country’s revenue were on target.

“We are in a better position than the same period last year. There are no signs that we are broke and that we are desperate and that’s why we are doing it.”

– Nampa