Corruption in Government

ALLOW me a space in your newspaper to express my view about corruption in our government.

The Namibian Government is very corrupt. If you mention this, ordinary people will agree with you, but leaders will deny it.They will feel insulted.Why am I saying our government is corrupt? Because our Government is just overspending public funds on wrong priorities, bad planning or on an excessive bureaucracy e.g. they spend taxpayer’s money on Heroes Acre and the new State House.If I am not mistaken only 14 percent (%) of the Namibian population are benefitting from the Namibian economy while the rest of population is suffering.I will have no doubt in stating that this is the self enrichment behavior of corruption, because our Government has failed in terms of priorities such as enough tertiary institutions, better health centres, and indiscriminate distribution of food relief in the country.A lot of school leavers are just walking the streets and medical treatment in our hospitals is poor this is proven by the fact that our Ministers go to Germany or France for special treatment.In this situation, there will be a lot of money floating in the hands of a, rather small group or high-ranking Government officials or other bureaucrats.You will also find people who have stolen money from his or her department in our government, but nothing happens to him or her, only that he or she will be changed from one department to the other.Why are these people not punished? A lot public inquiries have been appointed by our President and reports have been compiled but no action is taken and the reports are just lying in their offices but they cost us so much money as taxpayers.What is the need of wasting our money like this? This proves that our Government leaders tolerate corruption.Corruption must stop! In order for all Namibian citizens to equally share the fruits of this country the Government should be accountable, transparent and honest towards its citizens, and it is not doing so.If you look at the UN Human Development Index it shows that the GDP per capital is high, at the same time the human poverty index is also high which means the country has enough to feed its citizens, and this is simple a question of distributing the resources equitably to its citizens.Now the high-ranking officials have increased their salaries, while at the same time refusing to increase our senior citizens’ pensions.I know that corruption may cause a lot of negative things to our country e.g. crime, unemployment, poverty, hunger, disease, inflation, or even unrest etc. and it is therefore our responsibility, both the government and citizens of this country, to do everything in our power in order to fight corruption, but first the government must put laws in place to combat it.The Namibian Government must stop corruption today, and not tomorrow! I hope that our leaders understand!Ananias Aipinge Kaseven WindhoekIf you mention this, ordinary people will agree with you, but leaders will deny it.They will feel insulted.Why am I saying our government is corrupt? Because our Government is just overspending public funds on wrong priorities, bad planning or on an excessive bureaucracy e.g. they spend taxpayer’s money on Heroes Acre and the new State House.If I am not mistaken only 14 percent (%) of the Namibian population are benefitting from the Namibian economy while the rest of population is suffering.I will have no doubt in stating that this is the self enrichment behavior of corruption, because our Government has failed in terms of priorities such as enough tertiary institutions, better health centres, and indiscriminate distribution of food relief in the country.A lot of school leavers are just walking the streets and medical treatment in our hospitals is poor this is proven by the fact that our Ministers go to Germany or France for special treatment.In this situation, there will be a lot of money floating in the hands of a, rather small group or high-ranking Government officials or other bureaucrats.You will also find people who have stolen money from his or her department in our government, but nothing happens to him or her, only that he or she will be changed from one department to the other.Why are these people not punished? A lot public inquiries have been appointed by our President and reports have been compiled but no action is taken and the reports are just lying in their offices but they cost us so much money as taxpayers.What is the need of wasting our money like this? This proves that our Government leaders tolerate corruption.Corruption must stop! In order for all Namibian citizens to equally share the fruits of this country the Government should be accountable, transparent and honest towards its citizens, and it is not doing so.If you look at the UN Human Development Index it shows that the GDP per capital is high, at the same time the human poverty index is also high which means the country has enough to feed its citizens, and this is simple a question of distributing the resources equitably to its citizens.Now the high-ranking officials have increased their salaries, while at the same time refusing to increase our senior citizens’ pensions.I know that corruption may cause a lot of negative things to our country e.g. crime, unemployment, poverty, hunger, disease, inflation, or even unrest etc. and it is therefore our responsibility, both the government and citizens of this country, to do everything in our power in order to fight corruption, but first the government must put laws in place to combat it.The Namibian Government must stop corruption today, and not tomorrow! I hope that our leaders understand!Ananias Aipinge Kaseven Windhoek