Zero tolerance for fraud at Social Security

“Fraud and corruption, as well as unethical behaviour and unprofessional conduct seem to be on the increase in Namibia and more often than not employees at parastatals or government institutions apparently are at the forefront of such behaviour.” said, Kephas Shatona, Manager: Internal Audit & Risk Management at Social Security Commission.
Shatona said that funds of a parastatal or government institution are partly the funds of the nation as taxpayers money and these are used to fund the likes of Air Namibia, TransNamib, and NHE to name but a few.
“Because we are in a privileged position to receive funds from tax payers, professionalism and ethics should be the most important aspects of any business,” he said.
“Africa remains a continent of great opportunity but unfortunately the majority of countries included in the bottom half of Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index are located on the African continent” said the outspoken auditor.
“At the Social Security Commission employees are expected to be professional in their behaviour, diligent in the execution of their duties while conducting themselves in a manner appropriate to their service ethos at all times.”
“Our employees are called upon to serve their members in a fair and responsible manner. We have a Code of Ethics as well as a Fraud and Corruption policy in place.  As a strategic intent, we are planning to implement a Fraud Prevention Plan in the near future. The [plan] is aimed at fully embedding the prevention of fraud culture in the Commission and will be dealing with issues of fraud policy and response plan; fraud risk assessment; fraud awareness and training and reporting and monitoring mechanisms – whistleblowers.” said Shatona.