The Roads Authority (RA) has spent close to N.dollars 20 million on installing closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at its National Traffic Information System (NaTIS) offices countrywide in an effort to curb fraudulent activities.
In an interview with Nampa on Monday, RA Corporate Communications Manager, Hileni Fillemon, said about 10 cases of fraud and corruption have been registered over the past three years at NaTIS offices countrywide, with Khomas recording the highest number of bribery cases.
NaTIS has about 370 employees, and some have been accused of fraud and corruption by members of the public, alleging that some officials are prioritising bribery tactics over delivering services as expected of them.
Meanwhile, Fillemon said NaTIS is challenged by a serious problem of loitering by individuals who play middle-men and who are involved in most of the bribery cases at its offices countrywide, stressing that interventions to get rid of middle-men had proven futile.
“We are unable to get rid of them as they are part of a sophisticated syndicate and they continuously send different persons to our offices, thus it is difficult to identify them. The challenge is the fact that our society has an entrenched culture of wanting to get things easy, and as such, you have high incidences of clients enticing officials to accept bribes. Those who are steadfast and refuse to be corrupted are often isolated and accused of being rude and at times, clients call for their removal,” she noted.
Fillemon further noted that NaTIS has experienced incidents of various clients being arrested for attempted bribery, or where applicants tried to take a learner or driving licence test on someone else’s behalf.
“We have implemented various strategies such as regular training sessions, meetings and awareness sessions against acts of corruption to discourage our staff members from falling prey to bribes from the public. We have also developed and implemented Standard Operating Procedures that guide staff members on the step-by-step process of executing all our transactions with a view to avoid the use of discretion and avoid abuse,” she noted.
Source: The Namibia Press Agency