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Namibian minister cleared of corruption charges

Xinhua, January 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Namibia's Minister of Education has been cleared of corruption charges, the country's graft busting agency said Monday.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said it had find no evidence suggesting that the minister David Namwandi had corruptly used his position to benefit Namibia's sole private university, the International University of Management (IUM), which is owned by his wife.

Namwandi was a former vice chancellor of the university until his appointment as deputy Minister of Education in 2010.

There were allegations against the minister that he used his position to ensure that his ministry pay the university's rental fees.

He was also accused of using the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund to pay school fees for students from the university at the expense of those from state run institutions.

However, the ACC found that although the Ministry of Education had in fact been paying rental fees for IUM from 2006 to 2013, it was not unique that the ministry provides subsidy to a private school as it had done the same before with some other private schools.

The payments had started before the minister's appointment as deputy Minister of Education, it said.

The ministry's former permanent secretary, Vitalis Ankama, told the ACC during the investigation that he decided to grant the subsidy because the private institution was the only one offering accredited courses at that time. Endi