The Anti-Corruption Commission of Namibia (ACC) says although graft cases are declining in the country, corruption cases remain rife in Windhoek, Walvis Bay and Swakopmund.
This comes as the Commission investigated 106 cases in 2021, which were 10 cases fewer than 116 cases investigated in 2020.
“There is definitely no increase as the cases were decreased with 10 cases. So our take on if corruption is being contained or not, we believe the statistics on the cases investigated speaks for itself,” ACC Chief Public Relations Officer, Josefina Nghituwamata, told The Brief.
Although the ACC believes that Namibia is slowly turning the corner on corruption, the country fell two places from 51 in 2020 to 49 in the latest Transparency International (TI)’s Corruption Perception Index.
Nghituwamata said since it was established a few years ago, the ACC submitted 694 cases to the Office of the Prosecutor-General by March last year, with 530 of the cases prosecuted.
“Of all the cases where the PG decided to prosecute until the 2020/2021 financial year, 51% have been finalized in court. And these are all cases earmarked for investigation and fully investigated by the Commission. By then 262 were still in court while 268 cases were finalized in court. The finalized cases 154 resulted in conviction; 80 were acquittals with 34 cases being withdrawn,” said.
Last year, according to the ACC, 35 cases were forwarded to PG for prosecution, five of the cases resulted in a conviction, two cases were sent back to ACC for further investigation, two were declined by PG, while 16 are still with PG for decision and 10 are in court for prosecution.
She said the ACC’s anti-corruption drive is being hampered by the absence of the Whistleblower Protection Act, budget constraints, need for decentralisation and capacity building.
“ACC remains committed to do its work as mandated by the law. The public must come forward and give concrete evidence against corruption. When you do not have inherent power to deal with any wrongdoings under the sun, you exercise your power within the limit of the legal framework. ACC is not a toothless bulldog. We have been implementing our mandate within the law. In the process, we have uncovered many loopholes in laws and policies and recommended to relevant authorities for remedial measures. In addition, there are other bodies which in terms of their powers and functions are tasked to take action against corruption, maladministration and mismanagement. In a country governed by rule of law, like Namibia you only do what law empowers you to do. The rest is anarchy,” Nghituwamata said.
The ACC is an independent and impartial body that has a statutory mandate to fight corruption in Namibia.
