Govt playing dangerous game at ACC

A succession of dicey behaviour by government regarding senior staff deployment at the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has started to look very suspicious.

It also vindicates our long-held view that the ACC should not report under any political office but must instead account directly to parliament.

In fact, it has been suggested time and time again that the head and deputy head of the ACC should be appointed directly by parliament so that they do not feel they owe their loyalty to individuals who appointed them.

Now, just when the nation thought some teeth were finally protruding from the harmless gums of the ACC, uncanny efforts have been set into motion to seemingly disrupt ongoing critical investigations.

ACC’s investigation of the Fishrot debacle, though belated, had started to restore faith into the doubt-filled hearts of Namibians who always felt this body was a toothless Chihuahua.

But there appears to be a well-coordinated scheme to erase the Fishrot trail, first by appointing an interim board at Fishcor, constituted of known praise-singers of people implicated in the bribery scandal.

To throw more sand in the eyes of investigators, an ACC executive director under whose reign these investigations started was ushered through the back door for reasons we can all see with daylight clarity.

Then an internal official, who was appointed as chief investigator and who possesses vivid memory of the Fishrot probe, was removed from the position and a fresh recruitment process ordered.

These events cannot be coincidental.

They are a coordinated syndicate to cover tracks of thieves in our midst.