THE defence ministry plans to acquire modern military equipment and renovate half of its infrastructure during the 2018/19 financial year, despite failing to feed its troops.
This is according to the defence ministry’s accountability report for 2016/17 and their medium-term plan for 2017/18 submitted by minister Penda ya Ndakolo to the National Assembly on Friday.
The report stated that the ministry would do research on modern military equipment with the aim of acquiring some to replace about 16,5% of the “obsolete and outdated” hardware.
About 60% of the defence personnel would also be trained to specialise in different defence fields and carry out research on modern military equipment.
Ya Ndakolo added that they would likewise renovate or improve about 50% of the NDF’s existing infrastructure during the current financial year.
These activities would be done despite recent claims by the ministry that it was implementing cost-cutting measures over the past and current financial year.
The ministry was unable to feed all of its troops earlier this year, and introduced a temporary leave policy cycle for the troops.
The leave policy was introduced to allow about 30% of the troops to go on leave, while 70% remained at the bases.
The defence ministry’s spokesperson, Petrus Shilumbu, yesterday told that the staff leave was still effective, and that they would announce any changes when necessary.
Shilumbu, however, did not say what type of equipment would be acquired, neither the infrastructure to be improved, saying disclosing that would jeopardise national security.
“We do not just discuss everything with the public like that. For the safety of this country and for your own safety, we would not disclose everything to anybody. It is like undressing yourself. Your neighbours are watching, and it would put the public in danger,” he stated.
Shilumbu added that if the public wants the ministry to account for funds allocated to it, they (the public) must come to “our ministry, and we would explain to them how we used the money”.
Defence has been amongst the biggest beneficiaries of the government’s budget alongside the education, works and health ministries.
This year, the ministry was allocated about N$6 billion.
Apart from the plans for 2018/19, the accountability report also indicated that the defence ministry overspent on personnel expenditure or salaries and benefits for its employees by about N$465 million during the 2016/17 financial year.
The initial budget of the ministry’s personnel expenditure was N$3,7 billion for the 2016/17 financial year. However, the report indicated that this expenditure had increased to N$4,1 billion, despite there being no recruitment of new members of the NDF since 2016.
The ministry’s total budget for 2016/17 was N$5,9 billion.
Overspending was mainly registered under the categories of training with -7,7%, the army with -3,2%, the guard battalion with -7%, and the navy with -10% against the main total budget for the divisions.
Shilumbu yesterday said the ministry did not recruit new members, and the recruitment exercise was still on hold.
“We did not recruit new members to the NDF in 2017, but we had a passing out of the trainees recruited in 2016. After March 2017, we did not recruit members of the defence force,” he stated.
Ya Ndakolo on Friday said the overspending on personnel expenditure resulted from budget suspensions done by the finance ministry during the financial year under review, which was “over and above the amount proposed by the ministry”.
“The total amount suspended by the ministry of finance on the personnel expenditure category of the ministry of defence amounts to N$355 million. The ministry of defence advised treasury on the ministry’s projected personnel expenditure, as it was clear that the funds were not enough, and that suspensions would result in over-expenditure,” the minister said.
Ya Ndakolo also revealed that the ministry had put aside about 4,9% on personnel expenditure against the total budget allocated to the office of the minister during the financial year because they were waiting for the appointment of a special adviser to the minister.
However, the ministry is still unaware when the appointment would be made by the President.
The NDF has been accused of having ghost employees on their payroll, a claim they have denied.
This was due to delays in the recruitment process “as recruits could not report in the month they were supposed to report to the different services for which budgetary allocations had already been made”, Ya Ndakolo said.
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