Maria David
IT is encouraging that many, if not all, political parties contesting the presidential and National Assembly elections are promising to commit their leadership to combating corruption.
This was according to Anti-Corruption Commission Director-General Paulus Noa, who spoke during the Omusati Annual Regional Forum on the Implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan on Tuesday.
According to Noa, this is a crucial step toward implementing the National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan.
Noa highlighted that good governance at local and regional authorities is key to economic development.
“Corruption has the ability to derail national projects meant to improve the standard of living for citizens, thereby posing a great challenge to the alleviation of poverty in our societies,” he said.
He added that corruption drains resources from much-needed investments, particularly in areas such as health, education, infrastructure, and other basic services.
Furthermore, Noa said that corruption is the mother of all moral decay and is destructive to the development agenda. Corruption, where a small group of citizens benefits from the country’s natural resources due to unjust man-made policies and laws while the majority lives in abject poverty, causes widespread bitterness and instability.
“These behaviours must be discouraged from taking root in our society. We must all commit ourselves to restoring Namibia’s path to prosperity,” he added.
He emphasized that it is not only about redefining laws and policies, but leaders must also transform their hearts and mindsets. Moral integrity is essential to nation-building and economic growth.
Moreover, Noa indicated that the country’s strategy has 8 Strategic Objectives and 95 Actions being implemented by 44 lead institutions, with the ACC playing the role of coordinator.
The 2023/2024 financial year marks the second year of the actual implementation of the strategy. During the 2022/2023 financial year, 13 out of 16 cluster meetings were held to review the progress of strategy implementation.
Noa said that this progress builds on the milestone of the 2022/23 financial year, during which 87 of the 95 actions were successfully implemented by the 44 institutions under NACSAP.
The Cabinet approved the National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan (NACSAP) 2021-2025 at its 22nd (2021) Decision-Making Meeting, held on 9 December 2021.
