Africa-Press – Namibia. PRIME minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has charged at government officials who allegedly use office time to conduct private affairs and use government phones to run their businesses.
PRIME minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has charged at government officials who allegedly use office time to conduct private affairs and use government phones to run their businesses.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila made these remarks in Windhoek yesterday morning, at the opening session of the national steering committee on the second National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan for 2021 to 2025.
She said awareness needs to be created on what exactly corruption includes.
“Corruption is not only when you steal money, corruption is anything that translates into you using your position to enrich yourself at the expense of the public.
“Whatever it is, even if it means to leave your office to go and do your work during working hours without putting in leave. That is corruption,” Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said.
“Because you are being paid to be at the office but you are not there, you are earning another income. That is corruption.
“But you find that this person, who is actually on Facebook during office hours, [is] inciting people when you are supposed to be working. [That person] doesn’t realise that is also corruption.”
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said many misconstrue the bounds of corruption, especially when they are not the successful candidates for positions.
“Somebody would complain ‘this is corruption … I was looking for a job [and] I did not get it, comrade can you please give me something?’ That is also corruption, when you, yourself are favoured unduly.
“People actually need to understand all forms of corruption,” she said.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila gave examples of two occasions where officials on the job were “gossiping” in front of her while waiting to be helped.
“You are gossiping during office hours, but he [sic] does not think that that is corruption. It is important that we create awareness about it,” she said.
In both these cases, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said she believed the officials were not concerned about whether the person was a minister or not.
“And you are using it to do other things during office hours while people are queueing up waiting for services. Actually trying to show me that I am not scared of you,” she charged.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has previously said she often dismisses those accused of corruption in her office.
She, however, said politicians cannot find people guilty, and therefore, cases of corruption must be dealt with through the courts.
Her comments come at a time when she stands accused of irregularities, including a fuel storage facility’s construction costs which ballooned to N$5,5 billion, and the purchase of farm Duwib, where members of the San community live.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has denied wrongdoing in both these cases.
NO ADHERENCE
The Office of the Prime Minister was requested to create key performance indicators (KPI) for the implementation of the anti-corruption strategy in all the performance agreements for executive directors, to ensure proper implementation of the strategy.
This was announced by the secretary of the National Assembly, Lydia Kandetu, who presented the performance of the strategy’s implementation within the government at the same event.
Kandetu said they also have trouble with executive directors and heads of institutions not attending the anti-corruption meetings.
“Members of the clusters are not attending the meetings, some even refuse chairpersonship appointments,” she said.
At other institutions, some do not respond to or submit inputs. Thus far, only eight institutions have submitted their input, including the Anti-Corruption Commission; Financial Intelligence Centre; the ministries of environment, forestry and tourism; finance; higher education, training and innovation; information and communication technology; the Office of the Auditor General, as well as SMEs Compete.
Kandetu said she wants institutions to submit names of focal persons, and to attend to the baselines and targets to be submitted to the secretariat.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila made these remarks in Windhoek yesterday morning, at the opening session of the national steering committee on the second National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan for 2021 to 2025.
She said awareness needs to be created on what exactly corruption includes.
“Corruption is not only when you steal money, corruption is anything that translates into you using your position to enrich yourself at the expense of the public.
“Whatever it is, even if it means to leave your office to go and do your work during working hours without putting in leave. That is corruption,” Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said.
“Because you are being paid to be at the office but you are not there, you are earning another income. That is corruption.
“But you find that this person, who is actually on Facebook during office hours, [is] inciting people when you are supposed to be working. [That person] doesn’t realise that is also corruption.”
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said many misconstrue the bounds of corruption, especially when they are not the successful candidates for positions.
“Somebody would complain ‘this is corruption … I was looking for a job [and] I did not get it, comrade can you please give me something?’ That is also corruption, when you, yourself are favoured unduly.
“People actually need to understand all forms of corruption,” she said.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila gave examples of two occasions where officials on the job were “gossiping” in front of her while waiting to be helped.
“You are gossiping during office hours, but he [sic] does not think that that is corruption. It is important that we create awareness about it,” she said.
In both these cases, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said she believed the officials were not concerned about whether the person was a minister or not.
“And you are using it to do other things during office hours while people are queueing up waiting for services. Actually trying to show me that I am not scared of you,” she charged.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has previously said she often dismisses those accused of corruption in her office.
She, however, said politicians cannot find people guilty, and therefore, cases of corruption must be dealt with through the courts.
Her comments come at a time when she stands accused of irregularities, including a fuel storage facility’s construction costs which ballooned to N$5,5 billion, and the purchase of farm Duwib, where members of the San community live.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has denied wrongdoing in both these cases.
NO ADHERENCE
The Office of the Prime Minister was requested to create key performance indicators (KPI) for the implementation of the anti-corruption strategy in all the performance agreements for executive directors, to ensure proper implementation of the strategy.
This was announced by the secretary of the National Assembly, Lydia Kandetu, who presented the performance of the strategy’s implementation within the government at the same event.
Kandetu said they also have trouble with executive directors and heads of institutions not attending the anti-corruption meetings.
“Members of the clusters are not attending the meetings, some even refuse chairpersonship appointments,” she said.
At other institutions, some do not respond to or submit inputs. Thus far, only eight institutions have submitted their input, including the Anti-Corruption Commission; Financial Intelligence Centre; the ministries of environment, forestry and tourism; finance; higher education, training and innovation; information and communication technology; the Office of the Auditor General, as well as SMEs Compete.
Kandetu said she wants institutions to submit names of focal persons, and to attend to the baselines and targets to be submitted to the secretariat.
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