Confusion over airport bailout

THERE is confusion among senior government officials over the amount Cabinet approved to give the Namibia Airports Company for renovating the Hosea Kutako International Airport.

Documents obtained by from works ministry sources show that Cabinet decided mid-last year to give the NAC around N$145 million to upgrade the airport.

The amount was supposed to come from the works ministry, documents show.

However, finance minister Calle Schlettwein told yesterday that Cabinet only approved N$50 million for the upgrade, while the N$95 million would come from NAC’s savings.

“The final decision by Cabinet was N$50 million because the renovation of the airport is a priority project,” Schlettwein said.

The finance minister said it was up to the works ministry to request the money from the treasury to pay NAC.

The Cabinet instructed former works minister Alpheus !Naruseb and the works permanent secretary Willem Goeiemann to implement the decision.

Schlettwein said he needed to check the documents at his office to clarify whether the works ministry asked to divert the funds to another project.

The NAC is a state-owned company responsible for managing eight airports across the country, but the parastatal has been through deep troubles after allegations of rife corruption, cronyism and the misuse of state resources through state contracts.

The board which took over in 2016 has been complaining about a lack of money to renovate the Hosea Kutako International Airport after the previous board allegedly left the company coffers dry.

NAC board chairperson Rodgers Kauta told yesterday that a Cabinet committee informed them last year that they would get N$50 million. Kauta, however, said they were only informed early this year about the Cabinet’s decision to release N$145 million and not the initial N$50 million.

“We are now hard at work to get things done,” he said while declining to comment further.

The NAC board said it has since last year been planning on how to renovate the airport that has been receiving new over the years.

Some airlines started complaining about the poor state of the airport, to the extent that one of them threatened to pull out.

The board decided towards the end of last year to use about N$90 million from its budget to renovate the Hosea Kutako International Airport.

The lack of clarity regarding the N$145 million funding confirms another long-held perception that crucial Cabinet decisions are not being implemented.

President Hage Geingob, who wants the international airport upgraded, had for years complained about the lack of implementation of government decisions.

!Naruseb, who has moved to the agriculture ministry three weeks ago, said he cannot think why funds earmarked for NAC could have been kept from them.

“I have forwarded your text for the works ministry permanent secretary [Goeiemann]. May you be so kind and solicit more details from him,” !Naruseb said.

!Naruseb and Goeiemann had a tense relationship with the NAC board.

The relationship was so tense that Geingob had to convene a meeting in December last year when the Namibia Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), a national air travel regulator, threatened to shut down two of the country’s busiest airports over claims that the NAC was failing to do upgrades as promised. That meeting Geingob called was attended by senior government officials such as !Naruseb, Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, former attorney general Sacky Shanghala and NAC board chairperson Kauta. Two people who attended the meeting said Kauta told Geingob that some senior government officials were pushing the board to award corrupt tenders.

People familiar with Geingob’s thinking said the President sided with the NAC board on this matter.

Geingob subsequently praised the NAC last year at a media conference at State House, saying the parastatal has been doing a good job in fighting corruption.

carried reports last year on how the board stopped questionable airport upgrades worth over N$400 million. !Naruseb and Goeiemann’s supporters said the works ministry wanted the upgrades to be done, but the NAC board was being stubborn.

However, the board, sources said, did not want the upgrades to be done by companies that inflated the tenders, like the Ondangwa airport renovations which were hiked by N$52 million.

Questions sent to new works minister John Mutorwa got no response, and Goeiemann did not answer his phone.