{"id":450156,"date":"2011-06-29T12:52:19","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T12:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/29\/in-risk-of-becoming-a-dishonest-nation\/"},"modified":"2011-06-29T12:52:19","modified_gmt":"2011-06-29T12:52:19","slug":"in-risk-of-becoming-a-dishonest-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/29\/in-risk-of-becoming-a-dishonest-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"In Risk of Becoming a Dishonest Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

24 June 2011<\/p>\n

\n

column<\/p>\n

As a private citizen, Nahas Angula is a person of moral certainty.The Prime Minister is one of very few politicians Namibians can point to as a prudent user, perhaps to a fault, of public funds.<\/p>\n

Those who know him closely say he eschews freebies and donations given to him because of his public position. We have heard that the Prime Minister (and also President Hifikepunye Pohamba) turned down an offer of free personal internet from a cellphone company, insisting he must be billed like other customers.<\/p>\n

Shortly after he became Prime Minister in 2005, Angula reportedly hopped into his bakkie and drove from Windhoek to his house at Onyaanya in Oshikoto Region. His security officers panicked on learning about that and caught up with him in Otavi to escort him for the rest of the trip. Angula has erred, many argue, by keeping the staff levels of his office to the bare minimum. He has said he didn’t feel the need to employ more people or to mimic his predecessors, which might amount to patronage. That was all in the name of prudence and saving the taxpayer unnecessary costs.<\/p>\n

But there is contradiction to the Angula of high moral and ethical latitude. When it comes to advancing his party, the Swapo politician has proven more than capable of stooping to gutter politics beyond his own professed image of fair play and mutual respect. He once employed similar dirty tricks to those of the apartheid regime by branding Ben Ulenga a spy of the colonial master when Ulenga left Swapo in 1999 to form the Congress of Democrats. About three years ago Angula instigated the undemocratic behaviour of advocating no-go areas after the formation of the Rally for Democracy and Progress.<\/p>\n

Last week, we learnt of a new low point that has emerged in the Prime Minister’s established high regard for responsible use of public funds. The National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee exposed the Prime Minister’s contradiction when it questioned the Permanent Secretary there about the use of N$124 000 to print Angula’s report for the Swapo Congress in 2007.<\/p>\n

What is unacceptable is that Nangula Mbako, the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, argued there was nothing wrong in using government money to print 1 000 copies of the report for the Swapo Congress. It seems obvious that Mbako’s spirited defence of the use of taxpayers money for a political party meeting was done with the blessing of Prime Minister Angula himself.<\/p>\n

If Angula can indulge in such abuse, we are afraid our country has surely slid down the slippery slope of becoming a cheating nation. Angula this year rebuked fellow cabinet members for being frequent fliers on non-essential trips and thereby costing the taxpayer a lot of money in travel and the loss of working hours? Basic tenets of democracy demand openness and accountability to the voters. Sadly, the Office of the Prime Minister has failed on this front. And they have the audacity to continue defending such massive failure in good governance.<\/p>\n

Swapo, and all political parties, for that matter, should pay for their own activities. In addition, political parties with seats in the National Assembly already get state funding every year – N$230 million in total since 1997. Swapo has received more than N$180 million to date, and a tranche of about 75 percent of N$28 million will follow this year. That Swapo has not paid for the printing (and research, one might add) is an indication of the blas\u00e9 attitude that many Namibians have adopted towards the use of tax income. Even opposition parties which always criticise Swapo for corruptly using state resources, have failed to publicly account for their use of state funds. This attitude of unaccountability will only continue to encourage stealing and cheating.<\/p>\n

The malaise has no doubt spread to many facets of society. We must accept to be fast on the way of becoming a nation of cheats. And that’s perhaps why the Namibia Football Association (NFA) sent some Under-20 players to an Under-17s competition in Germany and got caught out eventually.<\/p>\n

Swapo must pay back the money used by the Prime Minister for its congress and for other unpublicised use of state resources. At least they should make that the start of moral and ethical regeneration.<\/p>\n

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