STAFF WRITER
Independent Patriots for Change member of parliament and shadow minister of finance Michael Mwashindange has called for the withdrawal of the Petroleum Amendment Bill from parliament saying ‘it raises three fundamental concerns namely: revenue certainty, risk allocation, and institutional accountability.’
The Bill seeks to have the upstream section of the oil industry directly under the supervision of the presidency.
“We from this side of the aisle are not calling for this bill to go back for the sake of going back. We are calling for precision. We are calling for a petroleum framework that strengthens Namibia’s balance sheet rather than promising it, one that protects future generations rather than front- loading political wins, and that treats Parliament not as a formality, but as the ultimate custodian of the public purse,” he said
He told Parliament this week that the Bill expands executive discretion in the determination of fiscal terms, cost recovery mechanisms, and state participation arrangements.
“The Bill before us does not sufficiently hard-wire these protections into law. Instead, it defers too much to regulations and future agreements, documents that will not pass through this parliament for the nation’s scrutiny,” he said.
Mwashindange added that, “While flexibility is often defended as investor-friendly, excessive discretion without firm statutory guardrails introduces fiscal opacity. Namibia cannot afford a petroleum regime where projected revenues vary wildly based on negotiated outcomes rather than predictable laws.”
He said countries that fail to clearly ring-fence petroleum revenues, limit cost recovery, and standardise fiscal terms suffer revenue leakage, delayed state income, and potential fiscal shocks.
“I must caution that uncertain petroleum revenues undermine fiscal planning, debt sustainability, and medium-term expenditure frameworks. We cannot responsibly budget for education, health, employment creation for our youth and infrastructure on the basis of revenues that are legally unsolidified and politically negotiable,” he said.
The IPC MP said the Bill increases the role and exposure of the State, directly and through state-owned entities, without an adequate strengthening of fiscal safeguards.
“Where the State assumes equity, it also assumes risks such as: exploration risk, price risk, and operational risk.
“Yet the Bill is largely silent on how these contingent liabilities will be transparently reported, capped, and integrated into national fiscal risk statements. Mwashindange saidNamibia cannot enter the petroleum era repeating the mistakes of the past, where optimism replaces actual discipline and political ambition outpaces institutional capacity.
“If the State is to participate in the exploration and production of oil, Parliament must be assured that: such participations are financially neutral or accretive over the full project lifecycle; borrowing and guarantees linked to petroleum operations are authorised and disclosed clearly; and downside risks are stress-tested against oil price volatility. This Bill does not provide that assurance,” he said.
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