Give ACC budget to Amupanda – former ED

Former Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) executive director Hannu Shipena yesterday took to Twitter to suggest that funds allocated for combating corruption should be channeled through Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement leader Job Amupanda rather than the ACC.

His sentiments come in the wake of Amupanda’s social media claims that the minister of higher education, Itah Kandjii-Murangi, pocketed close to N$1,5 million in subsistence and travel allowances from institutions under her watch, including the Namibia University of Science and Technology, the University of Namibia and the Namibia Training Authority.

Shipena argued that Amupanda’s efforts to uncover corrupt acts surpass those of the ACC.

“I’d like to make a humble submission: The Namibian people will derive more value if their budget to fight corruption is channeled through Amupanda. Currently, Job unearths, prevents, and pushes out more corrupt acts than the ACC. The government must just virement ACC funds to Job. This is a value-for-money proposition,” tweeted Shipena.

The ACC has been at the forefront of the country’s anti-corruption efforts, but concerns have been raised regarding its effectiveness in curbing corrupt practices.

Shipena served as the executive director of the ACC from October 2016 until 2020, when he was deployed to the National Council of Higher Education until his retirement in May this year.

Shipena, who said he envisions a bleak future for the country, further called for urgent and decisive action to combat corruption.

“Unless we take sincere steps to fight corruption, 50 years from now, the history of Namibia will be written that the 19th century until the last decade of the 20th century was the age of colonialism. That was followed by the age of entitlement and theft that ended in the 2040s,” read another tweet by Shipena.

Shipena did not respond to questions sent to him by SMS and his Facebook page, where he made similar comments.

Political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah said Shipena’s statement is a sign of the public’s diminishing confidence in the country’s anti-corruption institutions and the increasing reliance on activist Amupanda to expose corruption.

Kamwanyah said Amupanda has become a figure trusted with sensitive information pertaining to corruption cases in the country.

“What it really means is that Job is not getting that information by himself; people are bringing that information to him, and those people have confidence in him that he will do something, rather than going, for example, to the ACC, ombudsman, or the other institutions that are there to fight corruption,” said Kamwanyah.

He highlighted the need to critically evaluate the reasons behind this trend.

The answer, according to Kamwanyah, lies in the perception that Amupanda is more likely to take action and produce tangible results compared to the slow and ineffective response from traditional anti-corruption entities.

“So, the question that Hanu is raising is, do we continue supporting those institutions that are there to fight corruption, or should we, hypothetically speaking, give that money to the person who is doing more than what the existing institutions are doing?”

He referred to several high-profile corruption scandals that Amupanda had unearthed, including ones that led to the resignation of former defence minister Peter Vilho, as well as the ongoing allegations against the higher education minister.

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.