Mitigating corruption in the oil sector requires stakeholders to work together: Alweendo

Mines minister Tom Alweendo said to mitigate against corruption in the oil and gas sector and ensure that in-country value creation reaches ordinary citizens requires stakeholders to be transparent. 

The minister said companies must be fair and transparent with their employment procedures, procurement processes and exercise oversight over the policy implementation. 

Addressing a local content policy workshop to discuss the policy, Alweendo said the more transparency there is in operations, the high the chance of realising the objectives of the draft policy.

He said the National Petroleum Local Content Policy could only work if the government, Namibians, entrepreneurs, international service providers, and oil companies pull together. 

The local content policy defines the active participation of the Namibian workforce and entrepreneurs in the upstream oil and gas sector through training, employment and local procurement of goods and services. 

Alweendo said it is one thing to have a well-written policy and another to have the policy implemented and, therefore, effective. 

He said Namibia needs a local content policy to facilitate economic diversification and deepen backwards and forward linkages from various oil and gas value chain segments, thereby fast-tracking our industrialisation. 

For that to happen, Alweendo said Namibia's local content policy must have elements that promote job creation for Namibians, accelerate industrialisation through in-country value creation, and strengthen local entrepreneurship through enterprise development, skills, and technology transfer. 

According to Alweendo, the policy will be broad once adopted, and success will require various stakeholders to play their respective roles effectively. 

"We have the government, the Namibian citizens, the Namibian entrepreneurs, the international service providers, and the international oil companies. 

"The policy will work when all these stakeholders collaborate in the same direction. All the stakeholders need to prepare ourselves in advance to play our respective roles by developing the necessary capabilities," he said.

The minister called for a transparent, effective monitoring and evaluation system.

Concerning the culture of entitlement, the minister said there are people with a "You Owe Me" attitude. 

"People that are not willing to acknowledge that as a Nation we will achieve better outcomes when all of us accept individual responsibilities. 

"People with this attitude believe that society or the government owes them something. They do not have to earn or deliver value for what they receive. They focus more on what they are owed than what they can contribute to society," he said.

The minister added that Namibians would be better off as businesspeople and members of society if they fostered a culture of meritocracy instead of entitlement.