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9 JACL 1 (2025)

handle is hein.journals/jantcorul9 and id is 1 raw text is: From Service to Self-Interest: Civil Servants, Government Contracts and Corrupted Market Competition in Namibia Dunia P. Zongwe * ABSTRACT In Namibia, a rule - or rather a non-rule - allows civil servants to bid for government tenders. Indeed, though the Anti-Corruption Act 8 of 2003 criminalize corruption and the Public Procurement Act 15 of 2015 bars civil servants from vying for government contracts within their own public entity, none of these statutes expressly forbid civil servants from tendering for contracts offered by other public bodies. This lacuna or non-rule leads profit-seeking, self- interested civil servants (hereinafter 'commercial servants') to compete with private firms, the very constituencies the state already pays them to serve. The question arises whether the conflict of interests caused by this non-rule amounts to corruption and, if so, whether it violates Namibia's competition law. This paper measures the extent to which this non-rule, by allocating taxpayers' money to conflicted persons, hurts citizens-consumers. To answer this question, the article divides the analysis into three integral parts. The article begins by exploring the 'Fishrot Files', which has been labeled as Namibia's ugliest corruption scandal. This episode serves as a vivid illustration of the pitfalls of allowing civil servants to bid for government contracts, emphasizing the loopholes that these government employees can exploit for personal gain in Namibia's multi-billion-dollar tender industry. Also, in that section, the article lays bare the Chicago school of antitrust thought that informs this research, emphasizing as it does consumer choice. Then, shifting to the conceptual understanding of corruption, the article dissects the notion of corruption in general and in terms of the Anti- Corruption Act 8 of 2003. Here, the author insists that conflicts of interest lie at the heart of * Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Namibia; and Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Legal Studies, Walter Sisulu University, South Africa. J.S.D. (Cornell); LL.M. (Cornell); Cert. (Univ. Montreal); LL.B. (Univ. Namibia); B.Juris (Univ. Namibia). Email: dzongwe@unam.na or dzongwe@yahoo.com.Cellphone number: +264 81 399 5141. JACL9 2025 pp 1-26 1