Corruption – A social disease (Part 166): Take aways from Fishcobar - 2

Johan Coetzee From studying corruption cases in Namibia since 1998, it seems that there are the mega operators (also known as the sharks) that operate in numerous industries, e.g. fishing, diamonds and gas.The name of the previous Minister of Justice has been mentioned in these industries in several corruption cases. For example, Namibia Liquid Fuels; N$40 million paid for legislative advice on the Herero genocide case to British lawyers of whom some claimed to have worked 24 hours non-stop for weeks, and the Kora Awards case of N$23 million.Mega operators are instrumental in initiating legislative changes and putting systems in place to institutionalise corruption legally.Then there are the professional operators. These professionals include prominent lawyers mentioned in Fishcobar by Aljazeera (2019), Certified Accountants and auditors. These professional elite operate under the radar and channel bribe money via trust accounts and property development to legalise money illegally gained (money laundering).Then there are the daisy train operators that are the smaller fish that are in drug dealer terms the runners. They make connections at a much lower and operational level. They can include some ministerial staff, as well as the so called facilitators of corrupt deals, e.g. ‘Tiffy’ Haitukalupi as mentioned by Al Jazeera (2019).CRITICAL ROLE OF THE MEDIA The critical role of the media in reporting on corruption cases, internationally, locally and in social media can be demonstrated by Fishcobar.The pivotal role of the media is contrary to the President and the Minister of Trade and Industry who have criticised the media often during 2019.A freelance journalist of Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA) that participated on One Africa TV in a panel discussion about Fishcobar lost his contractual employment with the state owned press agency. The official explanation has been that he participated without consent. This incident is most probably an illustration of the political sensitivity at government level in connection with Fishcobar.In order to inform the public about the deep rooted corruption at political and business level, there is a perception that the Namibia Broadcasting Operation (NBC) need to broadcast the Al Jazeera documentary Anatomy of a Bribe. A free and independent media is the fourth pillar of sustainable governance. The President’s media statement in response to Fishcobar that corruption is not systemic is removed from reality. For him not to accept accountability for Fishcobar is an indication of very limited political commitment to reduce corruption.MINISTERIAL DISCRETION AND LEGISLATIONThe executive is compromised, dominates the legislature (an international trend) and has “immoralised” the judiciary.The previous Ministers of Justice (Sacky Shangala), Fisheries (Bernhardt Essau) and the Attorney General (Albert Kawana) orchestrated the amendment of the Namibian Fishing Act, Nr. 27 of 2001 to make provision for ministerial discretionary powers that laid the foundation for the facilitation of the quota to Fishcor. This SOE has been instrumental in institutionalising abuse of power and facilitating a quota to Samherji.The amendment of the Fisheries Act and the urgency with which it was done and implemented should be put in context of the delay with finalising other legislation. The Whistleblower Protection Act, Nr.10 of 2017 that has been promulgated more than two years ago has not been operationalised.Whistleblowing internationally, do not have a great track record of protecting whistleblowers. For example, Julian Assange of WikiLeaks is still in jail and psychologically tortured by the British and will most probably receive a 175 jail term in the United States of America.However, due to social media and an increased demand for transparency and sustainable governance, whistleblowing is becoming a pattern. Fishcobar is an example of the impact of international whistleblowing over which no country have control. Fishcobar is placing a new emphasis on the urgency for transparency and access to information. Drafting of access to information legislation has been initiated a few years after Independence by the Office of the Prime Minister. No public consultations has been executed during 2019 on the draft legislation.There seems to be a very low level of commitment to make access to public information a right and to increase transparency.WHISTLEBLOWER BEST PRACTISEA whistleblower form outside Namibia reported on Fishcobar, Jóhannes Stefánsson.The Samherji whistleblower is an international hero, comparable to Assange. Stefansson collected evidence diligently over years. He worked with trusted people so that the beans could not be spilled prematurely.The way he controlled the process is an example of best practise whistleblowing in minimising evidence being destroyed.Stefánsson resigned during 2014 from Samherji and started to work with the Icelandic government, WikiLeaks, and The Namibian newspaper. A whistleblower exposed more corruption in Namibia than any watchdog could since 1990.If this is the case, should Namibia not reward whistleblowers lucratively to encourage public reporting? Will rewarding whistleblowers not provide much more value for money than conventional watchdogs (e.g. the ACC, Ombudsman and Auditor General) that are not independent from government? We should encourage and protect whistleblowers in Namibia by rewarding them at least 25 percent of the proceeds recovered from corrupt deals (based on USA best practise legislation).The act of bravery of Stefánsson is what Namibians need, especially our private sector and our captains of industry. When do we ever hear the big corporates do something collaboratively about corruption on a national basis? Enterprise Namibia (EN), an alternative forum to the only government recognised business forum, Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI), has been ineffective in addressing national policy gaps due to compromised leadership (Coetzee, 2018).SILENCE OF THE PRIVATE SECTORBased on the silence of the private sector before and in the aftermath of Fischcobar, it is appropriate to pose some questions: Is making profit more important than resisting the temptation to be bribed? Why do the private sector not put more pressure on government to improve systems and processes of procurement, tendering and projects to prevent and manage corruption more effectively? When do we see banks and big businesses making statements in which they take a definite stance against corruption? What about the accountability of auditing companies in Namibia? What about the accountability of our professional elite, e.g. contracting engineers, architects, lawyers and Chartered Accountants?They are the ones signing off corrupt deals.REFERENCESAl Jazeera. 2019. Anatomy of a Bribe. DStv Channel 406, 22:30, 1 December.Coetzee, J.J. 2018. The role of the private sector in tackling corruption. Institute for Public Policy Research, Briefing Paper, 9 May, Windhoek.jcoetzee@nust.na

Corruption – A social disease (Part 166): Take aways from Fishcobar - 2

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