SSC not reneging on mandate - MungundaThe Social Security Commission says there is nothing untoward about its contract or donation. The Social Security Commission says there is nothing untoward about its contract or donation. 0 The executive officer of the Social Security Commission (SSC), Milka Mungunda, has denied reports that there is something sinister about its investor consulting contract with Multi-Wealth Management. An earlier report in New Era (‘Questions raised over SSC multi-million tender award’, 5 August) raised red flags over the fact that Multi-Wealth Management, a company owned by Manfred Zamuee and Bryan Hoveka, was awarded the tender in the first place because it had not made it to the shortlist.
Eyebrows were also raised about the fact that the current board chairperson of the SSC, Johannes !Gawaxab, oversaw the tender award to Zamuee and Hoveka, who are both former employees of Old Mutual Namibia. !Gawanab is the former chief executive officer of Old Mutual Africa.
Other questions were why the company was allowed to charge an annual investment consulting fee based on the SSC’s assets in addition to its basic annual consulting fee, and why this company, registered as a long-term insurance broker, was to provide investment advice to the parastatal.
Mungunda surmised that the New Era article was based on one of the initial contracts drawn up between the SSC and Multi-Wealth Management before she came on board as the parastatal’s chief executive.
This document, which must have been drawn up before June since it stipulated that it would come into effect on 2 June, has since been replaced by a new contract with new terms and conditions. The new contract was signed on 11 July, days after Mungunda joined the SSC.
Mungunda said according to the signed and final agreement Multi-Wealth Management is - among the 19 services to be rendered as stipulated in the agreement - to provide investment advice, assist with risk management, investment monitoring services and to advice on non-discretionary services.
Non-discretionary services, she explained, are services that “can come up as time goes on”, which are not specifically indicated in the contract agreement.
She did acknowledge that an internal management committee had formerly shortlisted companies that had applied to provide investment consulting services and had then made recommendations to the SSC board.
This time around, under the chairmanship of !Gawaxab, the SSC board decided to take on this role by establishing a board sub-committee which shortlisted and recommended the appointment of the service provider.
Mungunda stressed that Multi-Wealth Management did not tender to assist the SSC in establishing the proposed National Pension Fund, which the parastatal was mandated to do since its inception in the early 1990s.
There is now new impetus and haste to establish this pension plan, which is to be a vehicle for many people who don’t belong to pension funds, as it is one of the priorities of the Harambee Prosperity
Plan.
Mungunda hopes that it will be in operation by the middle of next year. To set the ball rolling an implementation team of five experts was to sign contracts with the SSC yesterday.
New Contract
Although Mungunda would not divulge the new terms and conditions of the final contract with Multi-Wealth Management, she flatly denied that the company would be paid anything other than a fixed annual consulting fee.
“I can give you the assurance that it is not more than N$500 000 [per year] and if they have to do anything extra we have to sit down and come to an agreement,” said Mungunda.
According to the first contract Multi-Wealth Management was to be paid a basic annual fee of N$500 000, as well as a further implemented investment consulting fee paid at an annual rate of 0.55% of the market value of the SSC’s assets as at the end of each month.
Mungunda said by contracting out investment consulting services the SSC was not reneging on one of its principal functions, which is to collect and invest contributions from its clients, which includes every employer and employee of