Govt secret reports to be made public

GOVERNMENT has agreed to make public the hitherto secret reports of different commissions of inquiry into corruption at some parastatals.

Since Independence, Namibia has had several commissions of inquiry into irregularities at different companies and organisations, but only a handful have been released. The majority have remained hidden from the public eye at State House and Government has always maintained it is the prerogative of the President, as the appointing authority of such commissions, to make them public.The blackout on news emanating from such reports previously led to controversial debates as to why such expensive probes had been commissioned if nothing ever came of them.Neither were their recommendations made public.Some of these date back to just after independence and include the Frank Commission, the 2002 probe into the Social Security Commission as well as inquiries into the National Development Corporation (NDC), the Roads Authority, Road Fund Administration and Roads Construction Company (RCC).On Friday, Government finally bowed to pressure from the Anti-Corruption Commission and agreed to release the reports.Minister of Presidential Affairs, Albert Kawana, announced that the reports collecting dust on shelves in State House would soon be released to the public.Kawana’s announcement came shortly after the Director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Paulus Noa, expressed concern about the perception that corruption was rife in Namibia.In last year’s Transparency International (TI) corruption perception index, Namibia scored 4,3 out of ten.Noa said he was worried that one of the contributing factors was the Government’s attitude towards access to information.”The reports of the commissions are lying in State House.There is too much confidentiality in Namibia.Everything is confidential.I agree that national security is something else but not everything should be confidential,” Noa told The Namibian yesterday.He said different commissions of inquiry had been appointed with taxpayers’ money and it was unfair not to release the reports for public consumption.”We are creating the impression that we are protecting certain individuals.I told Dr Kawana that it may contribute to the corruption perception and our low ranking.He agreed and announced it after reading the President’s speech.I hope it will happen soon,” Noa said.He said the ACC would push for the release of the reports until this became a reality.Both Noa and Kawana spoke at the launch of the Women’s Action for Development (WAD) anti-corruption ‘Save our Nation’ song project.Choirs were invited to enter songs focusing on corruption, with the overall winner to pocketing a cash prize of N$30 000 while the two runners-up would win N$20 000 and N$15 000 respectively.Noa said Namibians must strive to avoid the pitfalls of plundering their national wealth.”We need to focus towards a struggle for transparency, accountability, truthfulness and ethics in our political and economic leadership.Transparency is an important component of ethics and of course an indispensable aspect of strategies to combat corruption,” he said on Friday.In a speech delivered on his behalf by Kawana, President Hifikepunye Pohamba said the first major step Namibians needed to take in tackling corruption was to acknowledge its presence and the need to deal with it.The majority have remained hidden from the public eye at State House and Government has always maintained it is the prerogative of the President, as the appointing authority of such commissions, to make them public.The blackout on news emanating from such reports previously led to controversial debates as to why such expensive probes had been commissioned if nothing ever came of them.Neither were their recommendations made public.Some of these date back to just after independence and include the Frank Commission, the 2002 probe into the Social Security Commission as well as inquiries into the National Development Corporation (NDC), the Roads Authority, Road Fund Administration and Roads Construction Company (RCC). On Friday, Government finally bowed to pressure from the Anti-Corruption Commission and agreed to release the reports.Minister of Presidential Affairs, Albert Kawana, announced that the reports collecting dust on shelves in State House would soon be released to the public.Kawana’s announcement came shortly after the Director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Paulus Noa, expressed concern about the perception that corruption was rife in Namibia.In last year’s Transparency International (TI) corruption perception index, Namibia scored 4,3 out of ten.Noa said he was worried that one of the contributing factors was the Government’s attitude towards access to information.”The reports of the commissions are lying in State House.There is too much confidentiality in Namibia.Everything is confidential.I agree that national security is something else but not everything should be confidential,” Noa told The Namibian yesterday.He said different commissions of inquiry had been appointed with taxpayers’ money and it was unfair not to release the reports for public consumption.”We are creating the impression that we are protecting certain individuals.I told Dr Kawana that it may contribute to the corruption perception and our low ranking.He agreed and announced it after reading the President’s speech.I hope it will happen soon,” Noa said.He said the ACC would push for the release of the reports until this became a reality.Both Noa and Kawana spoke at the launch of the Women’s Action for Development (WAD) anti-corruption ‘Save our Nation’ song project.Choirs were invited to enter songs focusing on corruption, with the overall winner to pocketing a cash prize of N$30 000 while the two runners-up would win N$20 000 and N$15 000 respectively.Noa said Namibians must strive to avoid the pitfalls of plundering their national wealth.”We need to focus towards a struggle for transparency, accountability, truthfulness and ethics in our political and economic leadership.Transparency is an important component of ethics and of course an indispensable aspect of strategies to combat corruption,” he said on Friday.In a speech delivered on his behalf by Kawana, President Hifikepunye Pohamba said the first major step Namibians needed to take in tackling corruption was to acknowledge its presence and the need to deal with it.