Crack whip on corruption – Calle
Despite positive ratings in international corruption indexes, the crime remains pervasive in Namibia.
Finance minister Calle Schlettwein has called for a ruthless anti-corruption drive, saying it must become the Namibian culture in both the public and private sectors.
“We must therefore ruthlessly implement the zero tolerance stance against corruption at all levels as demanded by His Excellency President Geingob.”
Tabling the 2018/2019 national budget in the National Assembly yesterday, Schlettwein announced that N$61 million had been allocated to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). Public frustration has reached boiling point over the ACC's failure to act on high-profile corruption scandals that have rocked the government and state-owned enterprises over the years.
“Corruption has been shown the world over to be prevalent, whether in the developed or developing world, it is there,” Schlettwein said.
“Namibia has been rated for a number of years by several reputable rating agents and all of them rate Namibia favourably as a country with strong institutions and relatively low levels of corruption.
“We are consistently in the top five least corrupt countries on the African continent.”
The finance minister said despite several achievements, the country falls short of being free of corruption.
“On face value the cost of corruption is immense. For instance, the customs case in court produced figures, where through suspected collusion between clearing agents, importers and customs officials the state is allegedly defrauded of N$3.1 billion.
“Large infrastructure projects such as the Hosea Kutako International Airport project, which was stopped because the cost escalated to more than double for no good reason. “Tenderpreneuring and accompanying overpricing are possible only when private operators connive with officials and put own gain above common good.”
The N$3 billion fraud case involves a number of Chinese businesspeople in Namibia, including prominent businessman Jack Huang. The only Namibian implicated so far is coastal businessman Julius Laurentius.
Tax haven
Schlettwein again expressed disappointment at Namibia's classification as a tax haven by the European Union.
The EU recently published a list of tax havens which included Bermuda, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius and Namibia.
An Oxfam paper released in 2015 defines tax havens as mediums through which corporations can cheat countries out of tax income.
Schlettwein strongly objected to such labelling. “We do not subscribe to the subjective classification of Namibia as a tax haven because we are not. We are now engaging the EU authorities and we trust that Namibia will be delisted,” he said.
Schlettwein yesterday argued that the country was in fact wary of the pervasive pricing, illicit financial flows and misinvoicing prevalent on the African continent.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who chairs the African Union (AU) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa's (UNECA) High Level Panel (HLP) on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, has consistently voiced concern over the disturbing phenomenon, which has seen the continent losing approximately US$50 billion (about N$ 593 billion). “As a resource-based economy and a transparent sovereign, Namibia stands to benefit from international tax cooperation and exchange of information for tax purposes,” said Schlettwein.
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“We must therefore ruthlessly implement the zero tolerance stance against corruption at all levels as demanded by His Excellency President Geingob.”
Tabling the 2018/2019 national budget in the National Assembly yesterday, Schlettwein announced that N$61 million had been allocated to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). Public frustration has reached boiling point over the ACC's failure to act on high-profile corruption scandals that have rocked the government and state-owned enterprises over the years.
“Corruption has been shown the world over to be prevalent, whether in the developed or developing world, it is there,” Schlettwein said.
“Namibia has been rated for a number of years by several reputable rating agents and all of them rate Namibia favourably as a country with strong institutions and relatively low levels of corruption.
“We are consistently in the top five least corrupt countries on the African continent.”
The finance minister said despite several achievements, the country falls short of being free of corruption.
“On face value the cost of corruption is immense. For instance, the customs case in court produced figures, where through suspected collusion between clearing agents, importers and customs officials the state is allegedly defrauded of N$3.1 billion.
“Large infrastructure projects such as the Hosea Kutako International Airport project, which was stopped because the cost escalated to more than double for no good reason. “Tenderpreneuring and accompanying overpricing are possible only when private operators connive with officials and put own gain above common good.”
The N$3 billion fraud case involves a number of Chinese businesspeople in Namibia, including prominent businessman Jack Huang. The only Namibian implicated so far is coastal businessman Julius Laurentius.
Tax haven
Schlettwein again expressed disappointment at Namibia's classification as a tax haven by the European Union.
The EU recently published a list of tax havens which included Bermuda, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius and Namibia.
An Oxfam paper released in 2015 defines tax havens as mediums through which corporations can cheat countries out of tax income.
Schlettwein strongly objected to such labelling. “We do not subscribe to the subjective classification of Namibia as a tax haven because we are not. We are now engaging the EU authorities and we trust that Namibia will be delisted,” he said.
Schlettwein yesterday argued that the country was in fact wary of the pervasive pricing, illicit financial flows and misinvoicing prevalent on the African continent.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who chairs the African Union (AU) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa's (UNECA) High Level Panel (HLP) on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, has consistently voiced concern over the disturbing phenomenon, which has seen the continent losing approximately US$50 billion (about N$ 593 billion). “As a resource-based economy and a transparent sovereign, Namibia stands to benefit from international tax cooperation and exchange of information for tax purposes,” said Schlettwein.
STAFF REPORTER
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