Hertta-Maria Amutenja
The Speaker of the National Assembly, Professor Peter Katjavivi called for an increase in the budgetary allocation of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Katjavivi made the call during the budget motivation in Parliament last week, emphasizing the role the commission plays in combating corruption within Namibia.
“I therefore will appeal that we should look at how best we can allocate more resources to fund ACC for it to execute its mandate efficiently. Allow me to reiterate and emphasize that the impact of corruption is severe if it is allowed to persist. It impacts negatively on investors’ confidence, economic growth and development, healthcare, social and economic infrastructure development, to mention but a few,” Katjavivi stated.
The ACC was allocated N$106 million for the 2024 – 2025 financial year.
Katjavivi expressed concerns about the adequacy of funding.
He stressed that the current allocation may not be sufficient to effectively carry out the Commission’s mandate, which involves intricate and costly processes of investigation and corruption prevention.
Katjavivi highlighted the ongoing evaluation by the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) and the United Nations Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which recommended increased funding and capacity building for Namibia’s law enforcement agencies.
“ESAAMLG report of September 2022 further recommended that adequate operational capacity (financial, human and technical resources) be provided to Law Enforcement Agencies, inclusive of; Specialized staff to NAMPOL and the ACC to investigate money laundering and to the Office of the Prosecutor-General to prosecute money laundering cases. And specialized continuous training on high-end/complex financial investigations and prosecution including parallel financial investigations and effective application of special investigative techniques,” he said.
The ACC Director General, Paulus Nao refrained from commenting on the budget, directing inquiries to the ACC accounting officer, Tylvas Shilongo.
Shilongo said the ACC initially deemed the budget acceptable, but upon further reflection, they found it inadequate.
“Although we appreciate the allocation which is an increase of about N$24 million. Having looked at the government struggling with a lot of challenges due to economic factors we thought it was okay but it was not sufficient. We need to elicit the participation of all national societies as everybody must be involved in fighting corruption. We agree with him as it is not enough,” said Shilongo.
