Denver Isaacs
29 April 2008
Windhoek — Twenty-Two civil servants appeared in court yesterday after a joint operation against the unauthorised use of Government vehicles.
The swoop was carried out by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the Namibian Police and the Windhoek City Police.
The highest number of offences occurred among Namibian Police and the Namibian Defence Force personnel - four officials in each of these departments were arrested and charged under the Anti-Corruption Act. One Police officer and an NDF soldier face additional charges of driving under the influence of alcohol.
If found guilty under the Anti-Corruption Act, the offenders face a maximum fine of N$500 000, 25 years in prison, or both. Anti-Corruption Commission Director Paulus Noa told a press conference in Windhoek yesterday that 229 vehicles had been pulled over between Friday and Sunday. "What we found is that public vehicles have been reduced to family vehicles, have been turned into taxis for families and friends you find a vehicle being driven from one cuca shop to the other, from one shopping centre to the other," Noa said.
"There are areas like in Greenwell [Matongo, informal settlement] where you hardly pass a cuca shop without seeing a parked Government vehicle. It's me and you who are sponsoring these people, this is our property they are misusing like this," Noa said. The suspects caught this weekend work for all manner of Government agencies, including the Ministries of Education, Works, Trade and Industry, Health, Information, Finance, Home Affairs, and the National Planning Commission.
Eight of the arrested people were allegedly not authorised to use the vehicles they were caught with, while the rest were found to be transporting unauthorised passengers or doing shopping. Noa commented yesterday that one of the vehicles found parked at a shebeen had by yesterday afternoon still not been claimed by the responsible driver. Ironically, one of the vehicles impounded at a restaurant, where the driver was buying pizza with his family, had been assigned to the ACC. This vehicle, Noa said, was to be sent to a private garage for repairs, and the Police officer responsible was arrested. Another impounded car was found to belong to Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR), but was fitted illegally with a GRN registration plate.
One of the problems noted in a report the ACC compiled following the operation was that Police vehicles were among those allowed to be parked at private homes over weekends without performing any official duties. Noa said the weekend's operation would continue from now on, and would soon be extended to other parts of the country. "We have some vehicles in the regions that are notorious. People are informing us all the time, it's only for us to catch them red-handed," Noa said. By yesterday afternoon, 16 of those charged had paid bail.
All the impounded vehicles remained at the Windhoek Central Police Station.
Noa said Government offices that wanted these vehicles returned to them would have to come up with "good explanations", adding that these vehicles may be needed as evidence by the Prosecutor General's office during the ongoing criminal cases.
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