Allexer Namundjembo
Works and transport minister Veikko Nekundi says his ministry is developing policies to ensure government vehicles are used properly.
He explained that technology will play a role in enforcing accountability.
“We are planning on how technology can be of assistance. We also aim to implement a technological system that can detect reckless brake application. We are on it, and this will be implemented soon,” he said.
Nekundi said there is that tendency of officials misusing government vehicles.
“Just look at how people misuse their relative’s cars when left in their care. There are those government officials who do not care how they drive because they do not pay for service,” Nekundi said on a recent local radio programme.
Nekundi warned that the practice must stop.
“There are those that are using government vehicles for their own tasks. Things of this kind will come to an end,” he said.
He urged ministries and departments to share vehicles when attending the same workshops or site visits.
“There are also those officials, like in the health, works and transport or agriculture ministry, who are driving alone to workshops. That should be stopped, and they should start using the same vehicles. If there is a workshop in Swakopmund, they should communicate so they start taking each other along,” he said.
Vehicle misuse has a long history in Namibia. In 2008, Operation Spiderweb led to the arrest of 22 government employees for offences ranging from unauthorised trips to transporting children, running personal errands, and drunk driving.
That same year, National Assembly officials were charged with renting vehicles under false pretences.
In 2009, an agriculture ministry employee was fined N$15 000 after pleading guilty to using a government vehicle for personal purposes. In 2013, a police officer was found to have used a police vehicle for private shopping.
Concerns go back to 2004, when members of parliament warned that overspending in ministries was partly due to vehicle abuse.
The matter resurfaced this month when VIP drivers accused some ministers of instructing them to use official vehicles for personal errands, such as taking children to school or buying household items.
Without a formal policy, they said, drivers remain vulnerable to misuse by superiors.
Nekundi also outlined the government’s plan to connect all schools and clinics to roads by 2030 to improve access to essential services.
“This is aimed at ensuring that schools do not close when it is flooding. It is our aim to implement this before 2030,” he said.
