Govt’s N$130m rent bill

By Hilary Mare and Jeremiah Ndjoze

THE government, which is grappling with an economic meltdown is spending in excess of N$130 million annually on rentals for office space, Confidente can exclusively reveal.

The revelations came to light amid a devastating Covid-19 pandemic which has exacerbated the need for extra financial resources.

Documents which are in possession of Confidente show that in some instances, government is paying as much as nearly N$1 million per month for only five floors in a building to accommodate its employees who further gobble the greater chunk of the national budget through an “unsustainable” wage bill.

It has been reported that Namibia will fork out a total of N$29 billion for salaries and benefits for its civil service this year, which translates into about N$2.4 billion monthly.

Read the full story in this week’s edition.