I am deeply concerned about the manner in which the Anti-Corruption Agency is being administered. The Agency seems to lack politically mature, intelligent and capable leadership and is slowly becoming an extension of some NGOs. NGOs have their own agenda. That agenda is to make a lot of noise about anything as long as it is loud enough to be heard by the donors. That is their primary business and, until recently, the poor rural women, Aids orphans, etc. were ideal selling cards for this. But lately, NGOs have discovered there are quick bucks to be made in running TV schemes, gala dinners and anti-corruption competitions. Who pays for all that? Unless the Anti-Corruption Agency got confused, NGOs are not Government Agencies or part of the Ministry of Gender, and that is why they are called Non-Governmental Organizations. To be so closely associated with NGOs raises the question of what unholy alliance is there between those in charge of these organizations and an Anti-Corruption Agency? Right now, the country needs someone to educate them on what is really corruption. When does it happen that someone should have been the Anti-Corruption Agency. Listening to the NBC call-in programmes and the general complaints that are raised, the public doesn’t seem to know what is meant by the word ‘corruption’. Everybody who owns a taxi or a Kambashu is corrupt, particularly if that person’s next-door neighbour comes from the same village. This is where we need the Agency to help by educating the people and to avoid the current situation whereby people go on national radio to call each other names without any evidence. People should have been taught to know that when you accuse someone of a wrongdoing, you must be prepared to face that person with evidence. Otherwise, you keep quiet and do not accuse others on the basis of wild assumptions. But, instead of doing this and informing the general public under its own programmes, the Agency has allowed itself to be hijacked by NGOs to promote their money-making schemes that are no different from gambling at the expense of the poor. Yet these are the same NGOs that pretend to care for the poor. We all know the horror stories that take place within the NGOs in the name of the deaf, blind, poor, neglected and vulnerable. Therefore, Anti-Corruption Agency must do its homework properly and asked for full public disclosure of financial reports, salaries of the directors, from where they get money, and so on, before agreeing to work with any NGO. Failing to do this will raise the question of trust and transparency. NGOs, like any other organization, are owned and run by individuals, who are also human beings like all of us with their own short weaknesses, political views and opinions which may not necessarily be in line with the popular views of the Government. Therefore, any close association with organizations owned and headed by individuals must be avoided unless public disclosure has been made about the history of such NGOs, from where they get money, political history of its leaders, etc., and if the Anti-Corruption Agency cannot do this, then it is also promoting corrupt behaviour. Bitterly Disappointed Anti-Corruption Campaigner Dawid Jonas Mushilenga Oshakati