Official opposition leader McHenry Venaani has notified the National Assembly that he will introduce a bill to address the authority the minister of fisheries and marine resources has to allocate fishing quotas, which has led to the Fishrot corruption scandal.
Popular Democratic Movement leader Venaani’s bill will focus on the amendments to the Marine Resources Act, pushed through by former fisheries minister Bernhard Esau, giving himself sole discretionary powers to allocate fishing quotas as he wished.
“The aim of this private member’s bill is to limit the discretionary authority vested in the minister of fisheries and marine resources with respect to the allocation of quotas for non-commercial harvesting or reserve purposes.
“Specifically, the bill seeks to ensure that such allocations are made in strict adherence to the criteria and considerations outlined in Sections 32 and 33 of the Marine Resources Act,” he told members of the National Assembly this week.
Venaani said he would introduce the bill to the National Assembly on 5 October.
Esau, along with former minister of justice Sacky Shanghala, amended the Marine Resources Act in 2015 to validate giving horse mackerel quotas to the National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor) under the guise of governmental objectives.
The amendment stated: “The state is entitled to utilise or harvest marine resources to advance any social-economic, cultural or other governmental objectives in the public interest, through an entity or person designated by the minister, on direction from the Cabinet.”
The fishing quotas formally allocated to Fishcor was introduced by Esau in 2014 under the guise of “sustaining employment and investment in the fishing sector”.
It has been largely executed by Fishcor with the blessing of Esau from 2014 to 2019.
During this period, Esau issued Fishcor quotas of more than 360 000 tonnes of horse mackerel valued at about N$900 million.
These quotas and many others allocated by Esau are at the heart of what is now known as the Fishrot scandal, a well-orchestrated corruption scheme which has so far led to the arrest of Esau and his six associates, including Shanghala.
The trial is set to start in the High Court next month.
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