Government investigates Nida

CHARMAINE NGATJIHEUE and SHINOVENE IMMANUELTHE state-owned industrialisation company is said to have spent N$417 000 on legal fees to discipline workers accused of stealing meat and milk worth less than N$15 000.

These details are contained in a letter employees at the Namibia Industrial Development Agency sent to the minister of industrialisation and trade, Lucia Iipumbu, last week.

The letter is now part of an investigation which includes the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade, as well as the Ministry of Public Enterprises.

The aggrieved employees at the agency (Nida), which was created to advance Namibia’s industrialisation agenda, said the parastatal’s board and executive director Uparura Kuvare paid hand-picked law firms N$2,6 million.

The firms include Kangueehi & Kavendjii (which received N$657 000) and Tjituri Law Chambers (which received N$664 400).

The letter referred to an incident involving Kavango Cattle Ranch workers who were suspended for allegedly stealing meat and milk worth less than N$15 000.

“Mr Kuvare hired lawyers to attend to the matter at a cost of N$417 401. Meanwhile, human resource personnel are side-lined and kept out of the proceedings,” the employees said in the letter.

Nida allegedly suspended three workers at the Kavango Cattle Ranch (KCR) three months ago.

Their disciplinary process is still ongoing, sources said.

Kuvare is also accused of bypassing procurement procedures after he hand-picked a South African company, Southern Cross Marketing and Management, to supply pollen for the Naute Irrigation project valued at N$1,7 million.

“Even after having been informed that this company owes Nida N$2,5 million, he still insisted for the business transaction to be completed and endorsed payment to the company,” the letter read.

Other accusations in the letter to Iipumbu allege that 7 000 head of cattle disappeared from the KCR during Kuvare’s tenure.

Moreover, the letter states that the state-owned agency’s properties have become redundant and prone to vandalism, as 50% of them are unoccupied.

Kuvare said he would convene a press conference next week.

Board chairperson Frans Kwala admitted the parastatal has overpaid lawyers in the past seven months.

He acknowledged this on Monday when probed on the employees’ letter.

Kwala claimed Kuvare approached him this year about the lawyer issue.

He said Kuvare told him Nida cannot continue the services of external lawyers as their fees are too high.

“I told him, if that is the case, that the lawyers for unnecessary things they are billing us heavily … stop it,” Kwala said.

He said the appointment of lawyers is an internal matter.

“As chairperson, I do not get involved in such matters,” he said.

Those complaining about Kuvare and the board’s actions are the same people who have been affected by changes he had to make to end corruption at the parastatal, he said.

“But we are having a press conference next week Thursday and we will tell you everything next week. All the directors will be there so that we can rebut these lies,” Kwala said.

He insisted that the board was ready to do away with ‘corrupt’ activities at Nida.

“I do not have time for nonsense, because I am a corruption fighter. All those guys who are trying to taint my good name are thieves,” he said.

Kwala was the chairperson of the state-owned Zambezi Water Front Tourism Park in north-eastern Namibia, which was shut down four years ago.

reported last year that Kuvare’s appointment was deemed illegal, as it contravened the Nida Act 16 of 2016.

Kuvare is also a fellow board member of the parastatal, but was appointed to head the department with effect from 1 January 2019 and will serve in that position until a substantive chief executive officer is appointed.

The act specifically prohibits the appointment of a sitting board member as chief of the agency.