Bribery and theft of assets from the government are among the corrupt acts that need to be addressed in Namibia and Botswana.

Namibia's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and Botswana's Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) have convened a two-day meeting to, among others, tackle identified gaps in combating corruption in both countries following a signed agreement in 2021.

The meeting between the two agencies will see the drafting of a work plan as well as the sharing of best practices to fight corruption in the neighbouring countries, following an MoU on cooperation in battling corruption.

A work plan was then developed. 

However, the absence of established procedures and infrequent team meetings have hindered implementation, though these issues have all been addressed. 

"We believe that by sharing the experiences of both countries, we can learn and know which strategies to explore and actually improve in the fight against corruption... We need to have those regular meetings so that we can also monitor progress regarding the implementation of the MoU and identify those gaps as we progress, not just wait for the physical meetings to take place after a year. Those are the areas we are going to work on and improve on in this meeting," said Sethunya Rathedi-Motswetla, the head of the DCEC delegation.

The ACC and DCEC have made progress in carrying out elements of the work plan and have accepted invitations to various engagements in both nations.

Ongoing developments and activities will be examined, and improved on, and new ones created.

"As the plan says, we could've met in April to look at the activities to be implemented, and hence this is the first meeting. You are exactly here to do that, and I want to implore all of you colleagues, from our sister organisations, to dissect the activities that were planned, what we have done to date, and what we ought to do moving forward. I think that's a very important aspect of this engagement, and I remember we needed to set ourselves rules and procedures; we needed to do that," urged Tylvas Shilongo, the Executive Director at the ACC.