Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Windhoek municipality yesterday failed to explain the difference in its latest budget in the annual allowance of mayor Job Amupanda and those paid to former mayors – despite maintaining that city councillors would not receive an increment this year.
The Namibian reported yesterday that Amupanda is set to be paid a monthly allowance of more than N$70 000, or at least N$5 000 more than what his predecessors were paid for their part-time services at the city.
According to the approved Windhoek budget document, which was made public at a media briefing on Monday, the annual allowance to be paid to the mayor amounts to about N$850 000.
This is close to N$60 000 more than the N$797 000 the previous mayor paid. Deputy mayor Clemencia Hanases’ allowance of N$798 000 translates into more than N$66 000 a month. The previous deputy mayor was paid N$766 000.
Overall, the municipality will pay its councillors a combined amount of about N$8 million, of which N$2,8 million is for management committee members, while N$5,3 million goes to ordinary council members.
Despite this difference in figures stated in the municipality’s budget, Windhoek’s acting chief executive officer, George Mayumbelo, in a statement said the mayor’s allowance and those of other councillors won’t be increased during the current financial year.
“The alleged increase in the allowance of mayor Amupanda is factually incorrect. Council meeting of 7 November 2019, (Resolution 270/11/2019) resolved that there would be no increments to the allowances of the councillors. This position was further reconfirmed recently in a directive received from the minister of urban and rural development, Erastus Uutoni, which advised a zero increment on councillors’ allowances for the financial year as per the approved City of Windhoek 2021-2022 budget,” he said.
Mayumbelo also took issue with a figure of N$213 million stated in the municipality’s budget document and reported by The Namibian as a deficit on its total budget. This is in fact a surplus in the operational budget and will be used to fund half of the city’s capital budget of N$508 million.
During the budget presentation on Monday, Windhoek’s finance executive Jennifer Comalie said considering its capital budget and depreciation, the municipality could encounter a budget shortage.
