The lack of decentralisation of the Anti-Corruption Commission's functions to all fourteen regions makes it difficult for the commission to root out corruption.

Acting Head of Investigations at ACC, Justine Kanyangela, said this during the inauguration of the Khomas Anti-Corruption Regional Forum. 

Kanyangela says that investigators have to travel long distances in order to conduct investigations all over the country. 

Cases end up piling up because of a shortage of investigators specialised in investigating corruption cases in the country. "Then the investigator has to travel long distances to work in the south of the country in order to cover the whole country, and we have a shortage of manpower. The highest staff turnover occurs when people come and decide they are no longer interested." 

Investigations and finalisation of cases are also faced with the challenges of delays and non-response caused by third parties with relevant information as well as delayed trials and investigations.

"Lack of special courts dealing with corruption cases, witnesses getting discouraged due to delays in criminal court trials, amendments to the Anti-Corruption Act (Act. 8 of 2003) with other legal instruments to effectively fight corruption, implementation of the Whistleblower Protection Act (Act. 10 of 2017), Mutual Legal Assistance (MLAs) takes a long time and may delay the investigation," she added.

The Khomas Region has 229 backlogged cases of ongoing investigation carried over to the current financial year of 2022/2023.