‘Embarrassing’: MPs criticise colleagues as budget review is delayed again

Parliamentarians say it is shameful that lawmakers once again failed to show up for the tabling of the midterm budget review.

The National Assembly in Windhoek yesterday was one person short of its 49-member quorum requirement, marking a second deferment of the budget review due to absenteeism.

National Assembly speaker Peter Katjavivi told The Namibian yesterday lawmakers not being in attendance was embarrassing.

“If I can be on time, why can’t they be on time?” he questioned.

Katjavivi acknowledged that the forthcoming elections was the reason for the lawmakers’ absence, but said it was not a valid excuse.

“I believe it will not happen again,” he added.

Swapo member of parliament (MP) Phillipus Katamelo yesterday said MPs are collectively responsible for the lack of quorum.

“The shame is collectively on us, as a team. But at least within that team, there are those who are responsible for the good and the bad.”

He further said MPs made up exactly half of the 96 members present.

“So, it tells you that really, we are not short of one person, we are short of double the figure that was here. It means in literal words, every second chair was empty,” the backbencher added.

His fellow Swapo backbencher, Eliphas Dingara, yesterday said those missing in action should be named and shamed.

“The unfortunate part is that we can only show it to those who are present, not to the ones who are wrong. So, maybe you must do a database and list all those who are not present,” Dingara noted.

Health and social services minister Kalumbi Shangula says the absent parliamentarians indicate a lack of determination.

“Even when they are supposed to be there, at work, they are just sitting in one position. So it’s quite amazing,” he said yesterday.

Political scientist Rui Tyitende yesterday called for penalties to be involved for MPs that are absent without a reason or for those executing other national duties.

“Like you would get in any other working environment,” he said.

“Because they have done so in the past with utter impunity, they will do so now, and they will also do so in the future, because they know for a fact that nothing will happen to them,” he emphasised.

Tyitende argued that the country’s laws and policies should be reviewed to regulate the attendance of MPs in both chambers of parliament.

“Maybe we should consider suspending their salaries when they do not come to work. If you register them absent without leave, that’s one of the penalties that should be imposed,” he said.

According to Tyitende, similar measures that are applied in the private sector should be implemented in state institutions.

“Why is it not the same with people that are tasked with promulgating and formulating laws that actually govern relations between employer and employees?” he questioned.

Tyitende said through their absence from parliament, MPs are robbing taxpayers because they are required to be there to improve conditions for citizens.

“In other countries, how does it work?”

According to Tyitende, the parties are looking at their own interests and not that of the country.

“So, when they are out there campaigning about unemployment that they want to address, in fact they are actually talking about their own employment, not that of the Namibian people that they pretend to represent,” he added.

Popular Democratic Movement lawmaker Inna Hengari proposed provisions to dissolve the parliament, enabling new members to be sworn in before March next year.

“By that, I mean that in other countries, during an election year, their constitutions and laws clearly specify a certain number of days when parliament is required to be in session before elections, as well as the period when parliament should not be in session before elections,” she said yesterday.

This would help avoid situations in which lawmakers are required to sit in the parliament for a mid-year budget review, but don’t meet quorum because they are out in the field campaigning, she added.

“I think the responsible approach is, instead of wasting each other’s time and instead of wasting the resources that go into holding a sitting of this nature, I think we need to agree collectively that there is a need for us to bring some sort of provision that allows for parliament to be dissolved within a few days or a few months before the election.”

Swapo MP Natangwe Ithete urged members of parliament to start attending the sessions.

“We should divorce this whole mid-term budget from the elections. Because we have a budget review every year, whether there is an election or not. So, it should not be linked to the election,” he said yesterday.

The lack of quorum is disappointing, especially from the ruling party, he noted.

“The biggest blame, I would rather blame myself, as the ruling party, for not coming to the house, on behalf of others,” he added.