Paralympic committee suspends treasurer

JP Schmidt has been suspended as the treasurer of the Namibia National Paralympic Committee (NNPC) and an independent investigation into alleged irregularities within the body has been launched.

This was announced by NNPC president Johannes Litwayi at a press conference in Windhoek yesterday.

Schmidt had previously accused Litwayi and NNPC secretary general Mike Hamukwaya of abuse of power and mismanagement of funds.

Litwayi yesterday denied the claims and said Schmidt has tarnished the NNPC’s image.

“His allegations have tarnished the image of the organisation, while it’s also defamation of character against me and the secretary general,” he said.

“We had a meeting yesterday, when I informed him that he has been suspended from the NNPC board. An investigation has also been launched into the alleged irregularities, so I cannot talk about that now,” he added.

Schmidt previously said that Litwayi had blocked his efforts to gain signatory rights to the NNPC’s bank account, but yesterday Litwayi refuted these allegations and stated the exact opposite.

“I’m the president but I did not have a signatory right, to load or approve the money and the treasurer was giving directives during my absence, where to pay, who to pay and who not to pay until the funds finished last year. When it came to this year, I decided that there would be no funding without a change of the signatory, so I called a meeting at Otjiwarongo on 4 February this year, where we decided and agreed that Michael Hamukwaya will be the person to load the funds, while the treasurer and I have to release the funds. If one of the two does not release, then the money will not go through, so that we manage the funds properly, to avoid what happened last year,” he said.

“We have been fighting since February, the gentleman didn’t want to sign until 4 May when we had a meeting with the Namibia Sport Commission. He then finally signed, so now the account of Paralympics is in a good state,” he said.

Litwayi added that N$4,3 million from the government for Namibia’s participation at the Kobe 2024 Para World Championships in May was not even paid into their account.

“The money for Kobe was moved to Athletics Namibia, where I could not access it, so up till now I don’t even know how that money was used,” he said.

“Now he (Schmidt) is also saying that we owe Rennies money, but I’m not aware of that, because I never signed an agreement with Rennies. So, this is the issue on the table – what he did was not right so we had to suspend him, so that an investigation can take place. Whoever will be found guilty, should be locked up,” he said.