Tucna seeks N$11m probeTucna has charged that the ACC is protecting big fish for not investigating missing monies from state institutions. Accuses ACC of protecting big fish 0 The Trade Union Congress of Namibia (Tucna) has called on the Anti-Corruption Commission to stop tiptoeing around matters pertaining to the millions missing from state coffers, and said that they are the rightful owners of the Social Security Fund, and should therefore get feedback on where the missing millions have gone, and who is to be held accountable. Acting Tucna secretary-general, Reginald Kock, on Monday said that it is time for the Namibian government to take workers seriously and investigate the millions of dollars that have either gone missing or were stolen from the Social Security Commission (SSC) and the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) in recent years. Kock was referring to the N$600 million that was lost “during the GIPF saga” as well as the “N$30 million lost during the SSC saga.”
In the statement on behalf of Tucna, Kock alleged that the Namibian government and its leaders are “protecting the corrupt officials”.
“We [the] workers are set to lose another N$11 million” the statement read, making reference to the N$11 million that was transferred from the SSC for the children of the liberation struggle, as another loss for the workers.
“We don’t know until when workers’ money [will] be misused and corruptly directed to various activities which have no benefit for workers. This must come to an end,” Kock said.
The federation further outlined that in technical terms, they are the “owners of the Social Security Fund” and said that they are “disturbed by the information” they “are hearing on the latest capture matter of the N$11 million.”
“We know with the N$600 million GIPF matter, this so-called independent institute [ACC] was reluctant to act on the matter because big political fish were involved, who were too heavy for their fishing lines,” the statement further read.
Kock also made mention of how they hope that the ACC learned from their mistakes and has beefed up its manpower, and will thus be able to investigate the matters where the “big fish are involved”.
Tucna further made several demands directly towards the ACC, stating that they want to know if it is in line with the rules of the SSC to transfer monies of workers to a private control account of commercial banks.
They also asked the ACC to look into various matters concerning the transfer of the N$11 million, including whether George Simataa had the authority as chairperson of the [said] bank to open the account into which the money was transferred.
“Of course as much as we want the struggle kids - as a portion of the mass unemployed youth - to benefit from activities to uplift their situation, you cannot have a situation where only an identified sector is catered for.”
In a suggestive fashion, Kock eluded some Namibians being left out because of political affiliations. “We cannot be excluded from the Namibian house because we are wearing the wrong colours, we sing the wrong songs, or because we have the wrong hairstyle.”
Keith Vries