Investigating silent shareholding hard for ACC

Eveline de Klerk Swakopmund-Some investigations that have targeted some local authority councillors implicated in dodgy deals have proven to be a huge challenge for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) because those implicated are silent partners in companies that get lucrative tenders from local authorities, bemoaned the ACC. ACC also conceded to finding it difficult to investigate the human resources departments involved in questionable recruitment practices and deals pertaining to land. ACC investigator Frieda Kanyamo said the graft-busting agency finds it difficult to positively link local authority councillors implicated in dodgy deals to companies in which they are silent partners because of the shadowy stakeholder list of such companies. Kanyamo made this revelation when she addressed a one-day local authority councillors’ information-sharing session in Swakopmund yesterday. She added that linking people, including local authority leaders, to such deals is a headache for the ACC as they often remain anonymous and facilitate such deals without declaring their interests while raking in thousands from such deals. “We are currently exploring our options as to how we can identify such type of corruption and will soon come up with a workable solution as to how these can be done,” she said. Presenting figures of suspected corrupt practices in the region, she explained that 21 cases, representing 25 percent of all cases currently being investigated in Erongo Region, involve local authorities. These cases are being investigated since 2012, of which six are from the Walvis Bay Municipality, five from Henties Bay Municipality, four from Omaruru, while Karibib, Usakos and Swakopmund each has two cases. Arandis is the only town currently not being investigated by the ACC. “These cases mostly deal with procurement, tender allocations, recruitment and abuse of subsistence allowance,” she said.
New Era Reporter
2018-03-01 08:47:45 11 months ago