Papers turn screws on graft

EMBEZZLEMENT is the most common type of corruption in cases reported in Namibian newspapers between April 1 2004 and March 31 last year.

This is one of the findings of a study conducted by the Namibia Institute for Democracy (NID), released in Windhoek yesterday. Namibian newspapers reported on 184 cases of corruption between April 2004 1 and March 31 2006, publishing 1 364 articles on these cases.The newspapers that formed part of the study were The Namibian, New Era, Republikein, Allgemeine Zeitung, Windhoek Observer and Namibia Economist.The author of the report, Justine Hunter, said The Namibian produced the most number of articles by far on corruption cases.Hunter said compared to a previous study that the NID conducted for the period 1990 to 2004, there had been a significant increase in corruption cases and a dramatic increase in newspaper reports on this topic since then.She said there were two possible explanations: it could mean that corruption was skyrocketing or it could signify greater transparency and exposure because President Hifikepunye Pohamba had made the fight against corruption a priority of his Government.Despite the fact that the number of actual cases remained relatively stable during the period under review, the intensity of media coverage increased significantly between June and November 2005, Hunter said.”It is obvious that some key corruption cases were deemed far more important that others,” said the report.According to newspaper articles published in this period, fraud and theft are the most frequent charges brought against offenders.”In 25 per cent of all cases, judging agencies were Magistrate’s Courts and the verdicts were unknown for 84 per cent of the cases,” said the report.During the period under review, in terms of media coverage, Namibia’s most important corruption case by far was the Avid-Social Security Commission-Namangol case.The study found that the Ministry of Works had the highest number of reported corruption cases during this period.It also found that some forms of corruption, such as favouritism and nepotism, were extremely difficult to verify.Although widespread, they often remained unproven, it says.The study is part of the NID’s Zero Tolerance for Corruption campaign, funded by the United States Agency for International Development, the Swedish International Development Agency and the Finnish Embassy.Namibian newspapers reported on 184 cases of corruption between April 2004 1 and March 31 2006, publishing 1 364 articles on these cases.The newspapers that formed part of the study were The Namibian, New Era, Republikein, Allgemeine Zeitung, Windhoek Observer and Namibia Economist.The author of the report, Justine Hunter, said The Namibian produced the most number of articles by far on corruption cases.Hunter said compared to a previous study that the NID conducted for the period 1990 to 2004, there had been a significant increase in corruption cases and a dramatic increase in newspaper reports on this topic since then.She said there were two possible explanations: it could mean that corruption was skyrocketing or it could signify greater transparency and exposure because President Hifikepunye Pohamba had made the fight against corruption a priority of his Government.Despite the fact that the number of actual cases remained relatively stable during the period under review, the intensity of media coverage increased significantly between June and November 2005, Hunter said.”It is obvious that some key corruption cases were deemed far more important that others,” said the report.According to newspaper articles published in this period, fraud and theft are the most frequent charges brought against offenders.”In 25 per cent of all cases, judging agencies were Magistrate’s Courts and the verdicts were unknown for 84 per cent of the cases,” said the report.During the period under review, in terms of media coverage, Namibia’s most important corruption case by far was the Avid-Social Security Commission-Namangol case.The study found that the Ministry of Works had the highest number of reported corruption cases during this period.It also found that some forms of corruption, such as favouritism and nepotism, were extremely difficult to verify.Although widespread, they often remained unproven, it says.The study is part of the NID’s Zero Tolerance for Corruption campaign, funded by the United States Agency for International Development, the Swedish International Development Agency and the Finnish Embassy.