Agriculture defends N$98m underspending
Only recruited 60% of critical positions
Expenditure at the end of the financial year stood at 92%, or about N$1.1249 billion.
The agriculture ministry only managed to recruit about 60% of the critical budgeted positions by the end of the 2021/2022 financial year.
This is but one of the challenging factors the ministry said was not within its control and contributed it underspending by 8% of the more than N$1.2226 billion budget allocated to it in the 2021/2022 financial year.
The ministry provided this explanation after it was criticised for underspending its allocated budget by N$98 million.
According to the ministry’s audited financial report for 2021/2022, which was recently tabled in parliament, the department of agriculture and land reform failed to use its allocated budget.
In the report, Auditor-General Junias Kandjeke recommended that ministry executive director Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata put measures in place to avoid under-expenditure and ensure that all planned programmes are implemented.
The deputy director for public relations at the ministry, Chrispin Matongela, said expenditure at the end of the financial year stood at 92%, or about N$1.1249 billion of the total allocation.
He added that the remaining 8% - or N$98 million - that was not spent is a result of various reasons.
Not in our control
According to him, administration resulted in under-expenditure of more than N$15.8 million.
“This amount was mainly meant to cater for the recruitment of critical budgeted positions within the ministry.”
Matongela said the ministry was only able to recruit about 60% of these positions because interviews could not be held due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Contributing factors to the underspending on capital projects included the non-completion of construction works; non-responsive bidders, which resulted in the re-launching of procurement processes; unresolved court cases on disputed bids, and the late submission of invoices for payment by service providers in the last quarter of financial year, he said.
“As much as we agree that underspending is not desirable, most of these challenges were not within the control of the ministry.”
Not about corruption
Matongela said it is worth noting that the N$98 million was part of the estimated ceilings for agriculture and land reform, but that this amount was never disbursed to the ministry as the planned activities were not carried out.
He said it is therefore incorrect for anyone to insinuate that the fact that funds were not disbursed to the ministry is because they would be used for corruption.
This is but one of the challenging factors the ministry said was not within its control and contributed it underspending by 8% of the more than N$1.2226 billion budget allocated to it in the 2021/2022 financial year.
The ministry provided this explanation after it was criticised for underspending its allocated budget by N$98 million.
According to the ministry’s audited financial report for 2021/2022, which was recently tabled in parliament, the department of agriculture and land reform failed to use its allocated budget.
In the report, Auditor-General Junias Kandjeke recommended that ministry executive director Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata put measures in place to avoid under-expenditure and ensure that all planned programmes are implemented.
The deputy director for public relations at the ministry, Chrispin Matongela, said expenditure at the end of the financial year stood at 92%, or about N$1.1249 billion of the total allocation.
He added that the remaining 8% - or N$98 million - that was not spent is a result of various reasons.
Not in our control
According to him, administration resulted in under-expenditure of more than N$15.8 million.
“This amount was mainly meant to cater for the recruitment of critical budgeted positions within the ministry.”
Matongela said the ministry was only able to recruit about 60% of these positions because interviews could not be held due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Contributing factors to the underspending on capital projects included the non-completion of construction works; non-responsive bidders, which resulted in the re-launching of procurement processes; unresolved court cases on disputed bids, and the late submission of invoices for payment by service providers in the last quarter of financial year, he said.
“As much as we agree that underspending is not desirable, most of these challenges were not within the control of the ministry.”
Not about corruption
Matongela said it is worth noting that the N$98 million was part of the estimated ceilings for agriculture and land reform, but that this amount was never disbursed to the ministry as the planned activities were not carried out.
He said it is therefore incorrect for anyone to insinuate that the fact that funds were not disbursed to the ministry is because they would be used for corruption.
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