Nujoma told to suspend SSC bosses

Nujoma told to suspend SSC bossesUnions cite myriad of alleged irregularities Napwu has flagged several issues to the labour minister, upon which a request to suspend a number of executives is based. JEMIMA BEUKES and MATHIAS HAUFIKU







WINDHOEK

The Namibia Public Workers Union (Napwu) wants the majority of the Social Security Commission (SSC) leaders to be suspended for perceived mismanagement of the commission’s affairs.

Claims of irregular tender awards, questionable amendment of the company’s remuneration policy to benefit a few and alleged corporate governance flaws have also been placed under the microscope.

These allegations are contained in a submission, obtained by Namibian Sun, made by Napwu on 26 February to labour minister Utoni Nujoma.

Napwu said it is worried the situation, if not rectified, will lead to future retrenchments of workers.

“Napwu hereby requests the suspension of the staff members who were involved in various irregular practices to pave way for an unhindered investigation to get to the bottom of the happenings at the SSC,” the union’s secretary-general Peter Nevonga said.

Napwu wants the SSC’s CEO Milka Mungunda, general manager (GM) of corporate governance Evelyn Zimba-Naris, GM of human resources Yulanda Marais and senior manager for properties Gottfried Naobeb to be suspended.

Labour ministry executive director Bro-Matthew Shinguadja confirmed receiving the letter.

“We are in consultation with the board to establish facts first. Thereafter, [the] minister will reply to Napwu,” he said yesterday.

Wasted rentals

Napwu has raised concerns that management is not running the entity well and has entered into several questionable arrangements, such as paying N$2.3 million in rental fees since October 2019 for a building the commission has not occupied to date.

SSC employees who were based at TransNamib Holdings’ offices in town were meant to occupy offices in a building owned by state news agency, Nampa. But the workers, who were meant to move in at the beginning of February, could not do so because the building did not meet the City of Windhoek’s health and safety regulations.

Last month, the SSC had to foot both the TransNamib and Nampa bills, which are set at N$126 000 and N$194 000 respectively.

The TransNamib rent still has to be paid after the contract was prematurely terminated, since the SSC did not give its landlord three months’ notice.

Nevonga said “this is reflective of serious waste of financial resources”.

“It appears that the SSC did not plan and did not serve three months’ notice of termination to TransNamib, as agreed between the two parties as per the lease agreement,” he lamented.

Another headache is the Windhoek West properties that were purchased under dubious circumstances in 2016. The SSC overpaid by N$14 million when it bought erven 8451 and 1372 from a middleman.

The two adjacent properties were bought so that the land could accommodate the new SSC head office. That project never took off and one of the properties remain unoccupied, while the other is occupied by tenants who have allegedly not paid rent since 2016.

Retirement age

The commission currently stands accused of altering its remuneration policy to extend its CEO Milka Mungunda’s employment contract by another five years. This despite her reaching the retirement age last year.

Mungunda, who turned 61 on 3 February 2021, will now stay on as CEO until 2026.

The commission’s board chairperson Dr David Uirab announced Mungunda’s contract extension on Tuesday.

According to the commission’s human resource policy, it is compulsory for employees to retire at the end of the month in which they turn 60. This means Mungunda was supposed to have retired in February 2020.

The policy was, however, amended in June 2020, three months after Munguda reached retirement, to allow contracted executive employees to work at the commission beyond the age of 60 on a total cost to company structure, provided they procure their own benefits.

“The extension … is an unfair labour practice towards all other staff member who equally wish to work until 65 years,” Nevonga said. He added that such an arrangement requires ministerial approval.

There are also claims that an official in the human resource department, Moses Maharero, turned 60 in December 2020 and his contract was extended.

Tenders

Napwu is also unimpressed with the manner in which management is handling the commission’s procurement affairs.

The union said an agreement between the SSC and Bidvest for the supply of cleaning products and hygiene machines is not drafted in the interest of the commission, and wants whoever signed the agreement to be held accountable.

Napwu further took issue with a contract involving Okavango Renovation and Construction to partition the commission’s offices in Rundu.

Since the contractor did not have the funds to do the work, “the SSC then opted to give the contractor an advance payment without obtaining a guarantee from them, which is a requirement in the Public Procurement Act,” Nevonga said.

The commission is also accused of handpicking a private company when it procured its Netsuite System for just under N$10 million.

NetSuite software is an online service that enables companies to manage all key business processes in a single system.

Key components of the system were allegedly omitted to ensure that the amount remains below the N$10 million threshold so that it does not have to go to the Central Procurement Board of Namibia for adjudication.

Yet another deal questioned by Nevonga is the contracting of the Global Advisory Alliance to render risk and compliance services to the commission. The company, owned by Erastus Hoveka, was appointed through the human resource recruitment system instead of the commission’s procurement management committee.