Corruption Grows In Namibia

ALLOW me a space in your newspaper to raise my view about corruption in Namibia. It seems to me that corruption in Namibia is growing every year, and nothing can stop it. My argument is based on what has happened on recent years.

Since Namibia’s independence 1990, incidents of corruption in the public sector have been very visible.Among those corruption incidents include those in the Social Security Commission where N$30 million went missing and the money was not recovered in full; on the hand N$100 million of Offshore Development Company went missing and they were not recovered to date and no one was held accountable or brought to book. The NDF (Namibia Defence Force) N$3 million that was made to purchase modern military weapon is gone and everybody is quiet. Now the question is our judicial system? And the more recent one of Ministry of Finance (X-ray scanner) of N$120 million? There’s also the misuse of subsistence and travel allowance (S & T) by officials, especially high ranking ones. That is the taxpayers’ money that is being stolen and used by few individual at the expenses of the majority of our population. This money was supposed to fund development projects that are more beneficial to our current generation as well as the future one.When I look at the increasing number of corruption cases in our land of the brave the question that always comes to mind is, where are we heading with all these corruption cases increasing every year? What are we doing about it as nation? Are we really going achieve our national priority (Vision 2030) as a nation? From my personal point of view, Namibia will not achieve its Vision 2030; Namibia will not become an industrialized country. Namibia will not solve unemployment, unless our lawmakers come up with appropriate laws that are based or eradicating corruption from our country. For example any person who’s found guilty of corruption must receive punishment based on the value of what he/ she has done. I am really disturbed by the increase of corruption cases in this country, I therefore asking the Namibia nation to stand together and fight against corrupt practices both in government and private institutions. I am requesting all Namibia to report corruption cases to the right authority and on the other hand our parliamentarians should come up with incentives or laws that encourage and protect people when they report corrupt cases. Together we can eradicate corruption in Namibia.Mathew, WindhoekNote: Name and address provided – Ed