FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) rejects the misleading impression created that the country’s human rights monitoring and advocacy organization had lodged a formal complaint with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) requesting the latter to investigate allegations of a conflict of interest. The allegations involve the acquisition, by Justice Minister and Attorney General as well as SWAPO Party Secretary General Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, of a lucrative contract to sell meat to the outlets of Cabinet-controlled Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR).

In a Press Statement issued on February 14 2008, ACC Director Paulus Noa said his agency was responding “to the Press Release by [NSHR] dated 10th February 2008 and several telephone calls from members of the public who want to know whether the ACC is investigating the allegations concerning the acquisition by [Ms. Ithana] of a lucrative permit to sell mean to [NWR] outlets in the Etosha National Park”.

Hence, NSHR regards the ACC statement and the timing thereof as a deliberate pre-emptive strike and a blatant whitewash exercise apparently intended to frustrate, thwart and undermine anticipated additional public outrage against Ms. Ithana.

“We, indeed, have issued a Press Release urging the ACC to probe Ms. Ithana’s controversial meat deal. However, we had not yet formally notified or furnished the ACC with any specific information and specific points of reference which should be investigated. As contemplated in terms of Section 17(1) of the Anti-Corruption Act (ACA) 2003 (Act No.8 of 2003), ACC investigations should come after, not before, the notification and furnishing of information received from complainants. Nor has the ACC notified us in writing as inferred in terms of Section 19 of ACA of its decision to probe the allegation of conflict of interest by Ms. Ithana. We were about to lodge a formal notification with the ACC when, to our chagrin, we learned through the media that ‘all allegations, including the alleged conflict of interests were thoroughly investigated’ and that ‘no substance’ could be found ‘substantiating allegations of the conflict of interest’. Hence, the alleged investigation of inter alia our hitherto non-existent complaint plus the lighting speed with which the ACC investigation thereof had been conducted are extremely suspect and amount to gross misconduct on the part of the ACC leaders,” said NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh last Friday.

Specifically, NSHR would have requested the ACC to investigate the following aspects of the meat contract: Seeing that a contract involves an offer and acceptance, the human rights organization would have requested the ACC to establish who the offerror of the said contract was and exact date and place when and where such contract had been entered into. Since HA-NA-HE is said to be a black economic empowerment (BEE) company, NSHR would also have requested the ACC to establish who the empoweror and who the empoweree is. In addition, the human rights body would have liked the ACC to establish how and when Ms. Ithana obtained the information about the opportunity of supplying meat to NWR and whether or not such information was made public and was publicly known as such and, furthermore, why there was no bidding (tendering) for the contract. NSHR would also have requested the ACC to ascertain whether or not HA-NA-HE is the only company which supplies meat to NWR outlets and, if not, who the other meat suppliers are. The human rights organization would have also liked the ACC to probe reasonable suspicion that all employees at HA-NA-HE Butchery are related to Ms. Ithana and further that NWR Chief Tobie Aupindi is a former special or personal assistant of Ms. Ithana’s.

With regard to the inherently sweeping statement by the ACC that Ms. Ithana “buys meat animals at auctions and from individual farmers south of the cordon fence which [she] slaughtered and prepared the meat according to the specifications of the resorts in Etosha”, NSHR would have insisted that the veracity of this claim should be verified and confirmed and, further, that the said “specifications” of the resorts be made public. The human rights watchdog would have also requested the ACC to investigate whether or not Ms. Ithana was part of the decision-making that resulted in the signing of the contract to sell meat to NWR as well as whether or not Ms. Ithana, prior to the lucrative contract, had declared her private interest in the decision to award the meat supply contract to her company.

In NSHR’s opinion, Ms. Ithana had improperly taken advantage of the inside information she obtained in the course of performing her official duties as a Cabinet Minister. The Code of Conduct of the Public Service (CCPS), the Public Service Act (PSA) 1995 (Act no 13 of 1995), the ACA and the Namibian Constitution (NC) as well as the 2003 UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) strictly bar a public official from participating personally and substantially through decision, approval, disapproval, recommendation, the rendering of advice, or otherwise in any particular matter in which, to her or his knowledge, she or he, her or his spouse, partner or a company in which she or he is serving as officer, director, trustee, partner or employee. Hence, the human rights watchdog sincerely believes that reasonable ground exists to suspect that Ms. Ithana has conducted herself in a manner inconsistent with her status as a public official and in blatant contravention of the letter and spirit of Code of Conduct of the Public Service, Section 17(a) of the Public Service Act (PSA) 1995 (Act no 13 of 1995), Section 43 of the ACA and Articles 42(1), 42(2) and 60(1)(b) of NC as well as that of the UNCAC.

Furthermore, Ms. Ithana’s conduct amounts to a gross self-dealing exercise in which her public and private interests collided. Alternatively, such conduct is viewed as an untoward family interest act by which NWR purchases meat from HA-NA-HE Butchery which is allegedly managed by Ms. Ithana’s husband.

A conflict of interest, whether actual, apparent or potential, is defined as a conflict between the public duties and private interests of public officials in which such officials have private-capacity interests which could improperly influence the performance of their duties and responsibilities. Hence, the administrative decision-making process of patronage and clientelism by which the lucrative meat supply contract is entered into between HA-NA-HE Butchery and NWR is inherently corrupt and constitutes a classic instance of conflict of interest.

“Therefore, in order to avoid a classic case of potential self-dealing, Ms. Ithana should have conscientiously absented herself from the direct involvement in a situation where she is aspiring to get a Government contract, on the one hand, and deciding as a public servant who is awarded the contract, on the other. Hence, by failing to declare her interest in the decision-making process regarding the said contract, Ms. Ithana has dismally failed the 'public trust test'. It is also important to avoid apparent and potential as well as actual conflicts of interests”, said Mr. ya Nangoloh.
In addition, the manner in which the ACC had handled the meat contract scandal is reminiscent of at least two incidents of impropriety involving the ACC during the last two years. These incidents plus the present controversy have the potential of tarnishing even further the image of the ACC:

Firstly, on July 4 2007 the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) reportedly exonerated the ACC Director and the Deputy Director of any wrongdoing in connection with the controversial double salary payment which the duo had received in January 2006.

“Hence, seeing the fact that the two ACC bosses were previously transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the ACC and the fact that they received double salaries from OPM and from the Ministry of Justice in January 2006 and, further, the fact that OPM had exonerated the ACC duo, to expect the ACC to find anything untoward with anything done by a senior Cabinet Minister, such as Ms. Ithana, is analogous to expecting, say, Jesus to find faults with God or the rain to bring the fire. The ACC has yet to net any Cabinet Minister”, ya Nangoloh charged.

Secondly, on July 17 2007 the ACC similarly gave one of Namibia's most controversial BEE deals a clean bill of health. The deal involved the awarding of a lucrative fuel supply and or import contract to BEE outfit Namibia Liquid Fuel (NLF). ACC Director Paulus Noa had reportedly confirmed upon enquiry that the ACC could not find anything untoward following it its investigation into NLF’s multi-million dollar deal. The deal is said to have made instant millionaires out of a pack of public officials politically well-connected to former Namibian President Sam Nujoma and Ms. Ithana.

Moreover, the fact that the ACC’s findings in the NLF probe were first made public by NLF constitutes a gross impropriety on the part of the ACC. This state of affairs undermines public confidence in the ACC. At the time ACC Chief Noa reportedly also said that there was “no substance” in the conflict of interest allegations against NLF inter alia because then-Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab had approved the multi-million dollar oil import deal.

Lastly, NSHR is not at all convinced that it is within the mandate of the ACC to investigate complaints involving alleged contravention of the Veterinary Act or importation south of the Red Line of meat items from north of the said Line.

NSHR calls upon NWR to immediately nullify the controversial meat supply contract with Ithana as maintaining such contract continues to create a conflict of interest situation, whether actual, apparent or potential, in the minds of the general public.

For additional comment, please contact: Dorkas Phillemon at Tel: 061 253 447 or 061 236 183 (office hours only) or Phil ya Nangoloh at Cell: 0811 299 886