Online Reporter
Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
The Namibia National Assembly Budget and Finance Committee on Monday commended Zimbabwe’s Parliament for assisting in its establishment as an oversight entity.
The Committee’s Chairperson, Ms Helaria Mukapuli, said this after a joint meeting with Zimbabwe’s Budget, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Committee and the Public Accounts Committee.
The Namibian delegation is on a week-long benchmarking visit to Parliament and Zimbabwe.
“We are happy to be here, accepted by the Parliament of Zimbabwe on our request to come and learn from their best practices,” Ms Makapuli said.
“Our committee is newly established in our parliamentary setup. We established the committee after our previous visit to Zimbabwe.
“When we came by, we were only a select committee of five members. Now we are a budget standing committee of nine members.”
Ms Makapuli said at Monday’s meeting they learnt the public’s involvement in the budget formulation processes and improving accountability by the various arms of the State, among other lessons.
She thanked Zimbabwe for its support during her country’s struggle for independence.
Her Zimbabwean counterpart, Cde Energy Mutodi, said their joint session covered various issues.
“We covered a whole range of issues related to budgeting, and our visitors were very happy,” he said.
“There are things that they are not yet implementing in their country. Remember, the Namibian Parliament borrowed the establishment of the budget committee from here; their committee is also called the Budget and Finance Committee.
“So they want to do exactly as we do here in Zimbabwe, and we have just done exactly that, to give them all the information in relation to what we do in Zimbabwe.
“This engagement is critical as we foster our cooperation with sister republics. We maintain bilateral ties and we have common issues of interest.”
