Namibias state-owned fishing company has suspended its chief executive following media reports that government officials had taken bribes in exchange for the multimillion-dollar fishing rights to horse mackerel, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n
Namibian officials had taken bribes in exchange for the fishing rights. (Credit: Philippe Gabriel[CC BY 2.0])Fishcor CEO Mike Nghipunya was reportedly sent home a week ago after reports detailed his involvement in a corrupt fishing rights scheme, Bennet Kangumu, Fishcors acting chairman, told Reuters. We placed him on leave to allow preliminary investigations, Kangumu said.<\/p>\n
Officials close to President Hage Geingob also have been linked to the allegations. In a video posted by Al Jazeera on Sunday, undercover reporters posing as businessmen collected video of ministers and other public officials agreeing to trade Namibias coastal fish for cash.<\/p>\n
OCCRP wrote last month about a cache of 30,000 WikiLeaks documents, dubbed the Fishrot archive, that disclose how Iclandic fishing company Samherji paid nearly US$10 million to high-ranking African officials and politicians. The payments were transferred via Norwegian DNB bank accounts to shell companies in tax havens.<\/p>\n
Two high-ranking officials in the Namibian government, Fisheries Minister Bernhard Esau and Justice Minister Sacky Shanghala, have resigned since the documents were published. Both denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Geingog, who was re-elected to another term last week after receiving 56 percent of the vote, has lost a considerable support since the 2014 election, when he received 87 percent of the vote. Public frustration over corruption scandals and unemployment contributed to the decline, according to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
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