Windhoek
While President Hage Geingob has taken on stringent commitments to cut costs and State expenditure, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) could soon have a permanent secretary (PS), which will cost taxpayers at least N$800 000 annually.
Geingob had earlier suggested that government would drop the title of PS, as some officers posts feel they are permanently employed in those positions.
This came shortly after Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein tabled a belt-tightening budget with an ambitious savings target of N$12 billion between 2015 and 2018.
However, ACC director Paulus Noa believes the Commission is growing and needs an accounting officer to run the administrative side of things.
If the law were amended, the PS would need a personal assistant, office space and office equipment, as well as resources to fulfill their duties at considerable cost to the State.
The ACC Act, which is likely to be amended, makes provision for a director, a deputy director and other staff members, but does not specifically talk of an accounting officer.
The Office of the Auditor General has placed the function of accounting officer on the shoulders of the deputy auditor general. It is this model the ACC is being requested to follow.
Some are of the view that the ACC – as an independent body – does not need a PS, who will report to the secretary to Cabinet, bringing into question the autonomy of the institution and its capacity to go after those involved in corruption in government.
However, Noa feels differently and justified the move, saying the PS will be the accounting officer and the head of administration.
“The anomaly on the accounting officer found in the Anti-Corruption Act, as against other laws, needs to be corrected. Cabinet made a correct decision by approving the Bill,” Noa said.
“Both the director and deputy-director of the ACC are office bearers with the responsibility for the direction, control and management of the commission.
The director does not need to spend more time on administrative related matters of the Commission,” Noa stated. He further explained that the accounting officer is responsible for the financial and other administrative functions of the Commission.
He stressed that all other offices, ministries and agencies have accounting officers appointed in accordance with the relevant laws and that the post of the PS will be budgeted for in the same manner public posts are budgeted for. Once the funds are secured the new PS will start working, he said.
The Commission is expanding to the remaining regions in the country and cannot remain without an accounting officer, he said.
“Those of you who think that the Commission is too small to have its own PS are wrong. You fail to appreciate the importance of the organisational structures of public institutions, such as the post of the accounting officer in the institution,” the ACC director said.
He said that the accounting officer of ACC would not be an investigating officer, and that the new position would give the director and his time and space to focus on investigations.