Noa says corruption levels have decreased

By: Ketemba Tjipepa

The Anti-Corruption Commission director-general, Paulus Noa, says the country is no longer experiencing high levels of corruption.

This follows Namibia maintaining its position and score in the recent Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.

Namibia scored 49 out of 100, ranking 59th out of 180 countries.

“Today, as I’m speaking to you, we are no longer receiving higher levels of corruption as we were receiving in the past because we have drastically reduced the cases of corruption in the country. Because we are still receiving, but the level of cases that are being reported, you look at them, they are not of high magnitude,” Noa said.

Noa said Namibia is ranked lower than countries with more complex economies. He added that while corruption still exists, it is now mostly related to resource mismanagement.
“They are not involved in such high value. What is in Namibia today is more or less mismanagement of resources here and there by some institutions that are being tackled as well. But the real, real cases of corruption are drastically reduced. Therefore, one cannot agree with the ranking of Transparency International that Namibia is not making an improvement at all,” Noa said.
IPPR Executive Director Graham Hopwood said progress in fighting corruption remains slow, but Namibia is not moving backwards.

“We have good pieces of legislation like the whistleblower protection law and the access to information act that have been passed now for several years, in the case of the whistleblower protection law since 2017, but have never been put into operation. We have key pieces of legislation that should enable us to fight corruption not working at the moment. And then I think we just have outstanding cases that aren’t being dealt with,” Hopwood said.

Hopwood added, “The SME bank collapse is the big one perhaps that people think about. And then where we did the right thing in Fishrot and we arrested suspects, we didn’t take the necessary policy and legal steps afterward to reform the fisheries legislation. And so, you know, we still essentially have the same system in place that enabled Fishrot to happen.”

Hopwood hopes the new government will bring fresh energy to tackle corruption more seriously.