Strengthen its autonomy

Andreas Peltzer writes:
 
IT is all very well to fight corruption and to tighten the screws concerning financial administration. Nevertheless a study (Bandiera et al.) of the situation in Italy last year revealed that corruption may be responsible for about one fifth of overspending by public bodies.

Of “financial waste” by Government and its parastatals 82 per cent is caused by inefficiency. The biggest waste is created in the classical top-down central administration. The least waste is accepted in semi-autonomous bodies which are relatively independent, for example in the health sector. The situation in Namibia seems to be very similar.

The solution is not to create more layers of accounting but less! It is questionable if the EU and the NPC expect an improvement by more and more bookkeeping courses, more and more manuals on procedures etc.

We know by now that the big NGO’s busy in HIV/Aids sector are by far not the most effective institutions even though they can afford to hire several professional accountants. We must strengthen the autonomy of the smaller NGO’s, CBO’s and local authorities, not lessen it! Otherwise good governance only turns bad!