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13 staff members at the Ministry of Education have been dismissed in the Zambezi region after they were found guilty of claiming N$9 million in cash bonuses and additional payments. In order to improve payroll administration and identify any irregularity on the Ministry's payroll, a nationwide annual verification exercise is carried out.

Education Minister this morning made her first pretrial appearance in the Windhoek High Court in the case in which she is facing a charge of corruption. She is due to be prosecuted on allegations that she corruptly used her office as Hardap governor in December 2014 to place the names of two of her family members on a list of beneficiaries for the mass housing development programme at Mariental.

The scale of an alleged "ghost teacher" scam discovered at the Ministry of Education in late 2011 has ballooned, with the first court appearance of eight suspects following their arrest by the Anti-Corruption Commission. The Ministry was allegedly defrauded when the names of people not employed with it were registered on the Ministry's payroll.

Continuous strengthening of internal financial control and a policy of zero tolerance for maladministration and corruption by the Ministry of Education has led to an unprecedented ongoing investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). Strengthened measures at the ministry uncovered suspicious incidents where there was the possibility of rogue companies benefiting from ministerial procurement.

A report from the World Bank, "Africa Development Indicators 2010", has concluded that "quiet corruption" faced by common citizens is undermining the continent's development efforts and adversely affects inflows of investments.

The education ministry has failed to take action against teachers and other education officers identified as guilty of misconduct by various investigations and commissions over the years. Affairs between schoolgirls and teachers, and schools misusing equipment given to them to improve the quality of education are among the countless problems that had emerged from investigations.

Fifteen of the 80 students enrolled with the Namibia College of Open Learning will not write their end of year exams after a teacher allegedly misappropriated their examination fees. It is suspected he used the money to settle personal accounts. The students will not be able to sit their exams this year as the fraud was discovered too late.