Corruption perception hurting Namibia-IPPR
Perceptions that Namibian leaders are corrupt are hurting the country’s development trajectory, the Institute for Public Policy Research(IPPR) has said.
In 2017, the Transparency International (TI)’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranked Namibia as the fourth least corrupt country in Africa. This ranking was however questioned by Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) senior lecturer, Dr. Johan Coetzee during a presentation and panel discussion held by IPPR this week.
Coetzee during his presentation on the role of the private sector in tackling corruption noted that corruption is a social ill and Namibia fails when it comes to it. Over the past 10 years the country has only managed to reach an average of 4.8 out of 10 when it comes to corruption transparency.
‘More talk than action on corruption’
Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) director, Graham Hopwood, says “there seems to be more talk than action on corruption in Namibia” and “when action is taken it can often be delayed or ineffective”.
He also said it is his perception that large sections of the public have lost faith in the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Hopwood was responding to the recently released 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in which Namibia ranked 53rd out of 180 countries globally and fifth in Africa.
Transparency International (TI) has published the CPI since 1996, annually ranking countries “by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys”.
The CPI generally defines corruption as “the misuse of public power for private benefit”.
Corruption perception worsens
The Namibian reports on the new CPI rankings, and quotes IPPR director Graham Hopwood: It does seem that to become the least corrupt country in Africa by 2020 as per the Harambee Prosperity Plan target, we will need to make a much more concerted effort. It could involve a high profiled national campaign against corruption […]
Measuring Harambee
Corruption rankings show that government should adopt a different approach to measuring how effectively the Harambee Prosperity Plan is being implemented.
