Home Affairs owes millions in staff S&T

WINDHOEK – The Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration owes its staff members more than N$3,2 million in outstanding subsistence and travel allowances, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts heard yesterday.

This debt, which stood at N$3 242 569 during the 2004/05 financial year, has accumulated over the past six years, apparently due to the Ministry’s inability to employ skilled personnel to clear the backlog and pay out all the advance claims. This matter has not been resolved to date.Home Affairs and Immigration Permanent Secretary Samuel /Goagoseb told members of the parliamentary committee that the Ministry has, over the years, only had one person dealing with reimbursements of S&T claims.”But now we have two people in that division and we will soon get additional staff from other divisions to help clear the backlog,” he said.In response to written questions posed earlier by the committee, /Goagoseb said that the Ministry has already started capturing reimbursement forms to clear the outstanding advances.He said the outstanding advances could not be processed in one financial year, as this would affect the allocated S&T budget negatively.”Because of this, the process of clearing this outstanding subsistence and travelling advance may take some time to clear,” he said.Committee Chairman Johann De Waal made it clear that he was not impressed with the poor manner in which the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration has been handling subsistence and travel allowances.”Your subsistence and travel advances do not look good at all.You really need to put your house in order.It also seems strange to me that you are the only Ministry we’ve seen so far that’s paying back money to civil servants.It has been the other way around with all the other ministries,” said De Waal.NampaThis matter has not been resolved to date.Home Affairs and Immigration Permanent Secretary Samuel /Goagoseb told members of the parliamentary committee that the Ministry has, over the years, only had one person dealing with reimbursements of S&T claims.”But now we have two people in that division and we will soon get additional staff from other divisions to help clear the backlog,” he said.In response to written questions posed earlier by the committee, /Goagoseb said that the Ministry has already started capturing reimbursement forms to clear the outstanding advances.He said the outstanding advances could not be processed in one financial year, as this would affect the allocated S&T budget negatively.”Because of this, the process of clearing this outstanding subsistence and travelling advance may take some time to clear,” he said.Committee Chairman Johann De Waal made it clear that he was not impressed with the poor manner in which the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration has been handling subsistence and travel allowances.”Your subsistence and travel advances do not look good at all.You really need to put your house in order.It also seems strange to me that you are the only Ministry we’ve seen so far that’s paying back money to civil servants.It has been the other way around with all the other ministries,” said De Waal.Nampa