The manner in which politicians’ asset declaration is handled is open to abuse by political adversaries, Labour Minister Utoni Nujoma has said. The minister wants the National Assembly to conceal these declarations to protect lawmakers against vile attacks. Nujoma registered his concern in the National Assembly on Tuesday when contributing to the draft Access to Information Bill. He was responding to attacks against him by Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) leader McHenry Venaani, who questioned his liberation credentials. “What type of revolutionary owns a house in Kawasaki? You own shares in every company in this country. Don’t come and bully us here,” Venaani said last week in reference to the 2018 asset register. That year, Nujoma declared that he owns four residential properties, in Windhoek, Ongwediva and Japan’s Kawasaki and a multitude of shares in multiple business conglomerates. “I declared interests [in 2018] as required. But as I am speaking now, all the declarations that I did here are on Facebook. What is the point of declaring this again? It is on Facebook, maliciously distributed by political opponents,” Nujoma told Speaker Peter Katjavivi. Responding, Katjavivi said: “What is important is what you are able to do in terms of what you declare and according to the law, we will keep that in custody and that part that will be made available to the public for the necessary scrutiny. What is kept by the National Assembly is kept under the necessary supervision and control.” Nujoma was not satisfied with the response. “I also want to mention that it is unfair for the honourable member seated in this house [pointing at Venaani] to quote from Facebook to attack other members,” Nujoma said. Asset declarations by Members of Parliament (MPs) is a chief requirement by the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament Act of 1996. However, to this day, Parliament is without an auditing system for the declarations made by MPs, thus the accuracy of the asset declaration register is pinned solely on the honesty of MPs. In 2018, some MPs had no assets or had nothing to disclose, while others declared a power bank as the only asset to their name. Effective income and asset declaration helps prevent abuse of power, reduces corruption, increases public accountability and legitimises the government, studies have shown. The public is empowered to report MPs they suspect have withheld information regarding their assets and interests. MPs may face punitive measures for failure to declare their assets. -NAMPA