Africa-Press – Namibia. INSTITUTE for Public Policy Research director executive Graham Hopwood called on the government to include the establishment of a whistleblower protection office to demonstrate their true commitment to fighting corruption in the country.
Hopwood said if president Hage Geingob is serious about his zero tolerance on corruption, he should demonstrate this by showing that there is political will to get this office established.
“I would like to call on the government as a demonstration of its political will, and we hear about zero tolerance for corruption from the president [Hage Geingob] towards explicitly including the cost of setting up a whistleblower protection office in the 2022/2023 budget,” he said at a press conference in Windhoek on Tuesday.
The IPPR launched its own anti-corruption project called Integrity Namibia.
“We are launching this because the government has delayed so long and shows no sign of actually implementing the Whistleblower Protection Act in the short to medium term,” he explained.
During last year’s budget speech, finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi said they have allocated funds to the Ministry of Justice for the establishment of a skeleton office.
“But actually as far as I can work out, there was never any money allocated. And what happened was that the staffing structure was drawn up and sent to the office of the Public Service Commission for a whistleblower protection office where as far as I know it still lies,” Hopwood said.
Hopwood was told by Shiimi that the cost of setting up the office is too huge for the government to contemplate at the moment.
“But if you look at the act which is one of the research papers we will do, the cost of the whistleblower protection system in Namibia is not actually that huge with not such a huge staff complement, and people can be seconded from other parts of the government. They have been putting it off for years and years,” he said.
INTEGRITY NAMIBIA
This project, which is funded by the United States embassy for the next three years, will be a separate entity from the state to encourage more whistleblowers to speak out and share potential corruption activities.
The project includes a platform where whistleblowers can contact and share information of potential corruption. This platform is expected to be launched by May 2022 as part of the Integrity Namibia website.
It will include a secure communication channel where confidentiality is paramount and the team will screen reports. They will also investigate the claims as well as do referrals to other bodies for further investigation.
“The project will, over a period of three years, build a national network of non-state actors that are committed to tackling corruption in Namibia,” he said.
This will involve a national mobilisation campaign alongside a series of research- based interventions including publications and other activities on key policy, legal and practical issues that will inform the mobilisation work.
FISHROT
Furthermore, Hopwood says they are working with Transparency International in Iceland to hold the three Icelandic citizens linked to that country’s fishing conglomerate Samherji accountable.
Samherji, one of the three biggest seafood companies in the world, is also accused of bribing Namibian government ministers and bankrolling Swapo’s political activities.
In reference to the Fishrot scandal, Hopwood said Namibia’s corruption situation is hopeless as high profile cases continue to be stretched out.
Hopwood criticised the legal fraternity’s lack of an effective challenge against the Fishrot corruption saga after their profession was tainted.
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