Be transparent and declare your assets – Namibia President tells MPs

Says declaration of assets is a stepping stone to fighting corruption  

QUEEN MOSARWE

Namibia president Dr Hage Geingob says in order to be accountable and transparent, Members of Parliament should declare their assets.  Accountability and transparency, he said, were  important for a country’s  economic development, and by declaring his assets, he said he was declaring war against corruption and  poverty  in Namibia.
“That is why as the first step,  I publicly declared my income and assets soon after my inauguration as president,” he stated.  Geingob said he also declared 2016 as the year of implementation in Namibia, and that he was  leading the implementation drive ,  a move he said other countries could learn  from. He said Africa was faced with a problem of good resolutions and drafting of good policies which later gather dust from not being followed through.  “Sometimes we are very efficient in drafting the policy documents but not effective in implementing them,” he said, maintaining that ,“ We politicians are efficient in talking, efficient in drafting policies  but sometimes those documents go to bureaucrats and lie there until election time when we realize what we had promised but not implemented.”
Geingob was addressing  Botswana Parliament on Monday during his two day   state visit in which he also outlined some of the bilateral projects that he and President Ian Khama are planning to undertake. He said they would try to address problems like drought and shortage of water  in Botswana; “ We have lot  of water in Namibia which can be put to good use in Botswana,” he explained.
He  also said there were plans to establish a railway line  and providing  a  dry port  to Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. “ Countries which were known as landlocked countries will have access to the sea as they would be linked  through the dry port,” he said.
Another issue he said would be address was that of the energy crisis the countries were facing, “Sometimes we have good plans but the problem becomes implementation,” he reiterated, urging that where possible the two countries should seek guidance from one another.
The Namibian president arrived in Botswana on Monday and is hosted by President Khama. During his two day state visit, the two presidents are expected to deliberate on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest.