Tax bribery trial shifted to 2010

THE starting date of the corruption trial of a Windhoek resident allegedly caught paying a bribe of N$40 000 to a Ministry of Finance

official has been shifted to early next year.The trial of Louisa Engels (46), who was charged under the Anti-Corruption Act of 2003 after her arrest on October 30 2007, was scheduled to start before Magistrate Dinnah Usiku in the Windhoek Regional Court yesterday. The date was set at Engels’s last court appearance in September.Public Prosecutor OJ Lino however told Magistrate Usiku yesterday that it had been agreed that the case should be postponed to January 18 to 21 instead.Defence lawyer Richard Metcalfe, representing Engels, told the Magistrate that ‘some problems’ from both sides had arisen in the case. He said the biggest of these was that Engels’s file with the Receiver of Revenue had not been disclosed to the defence.It has since been indicated to the defence that the file, which is considered confidential, would be disclosed once Engels has given her consent for it to be done, Metcalfe said.Engels is accused of paying a bribe of N$40 000 to a Ministry of Finance official, Vivian de Koe, at Arebbusch Lodge in Windhoek on October 30 2007. De Koe, who is employed in the Ministry’s Directorate of Inland Revenue, was allegedly given the money in an attempt to induce him to manipulate, remove or alter amounts on tax assessments of Engels, her husband and their business, JL Thatching, it is alleged.De Koe was one of three State witnesses present at the court yesterday, only to be told to return to court on January 18.It is claimed that the Ministry of Finance was demanding that Engels, her husband and their business cough up unpaid taxes – both personal income tax and value added tax – amounting to over N$7 million when the alleged bribery attempt was made.The payment of the alleged bribe was filmed with a hidden camera, it is claimed.Engels remains free on bail of N$20 000. One of the conditions attached to her bail, which was that she had to report to the Police in Windhoek every Friday, was scrapped on request from Metcalfe yesterday. Engels’s passport should remain with the Police, the Magistrate ordered.