Accountant wins case against PAAB

MATHIAS HAUFIKU







WINDHOEK

The Supreme Court yesterday overturned a controversial High Court ruling which rejected an application by chartered accountant Hans Hashagen to block disciplinary charges against him.

Hashagen was charged with unethical and unprofessional conduct by the Public Accountants and Auditors Board (PAAB) after allegedly spearheading a dubious forensic probe that led to the dismissal of former Namibian Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) boss Rainer Ritter.

Hashagen in 2017 filed an application to the High Court requesting the court to set aside a decision by PAAB to arraign him before a disciplinary hearing on six charges.

Hashagen’s challenge failed after Judge Thomas Masuku ruled that his attempt to have the disciplinary process reviewed by the High Court was premature, and that he had not exhausted internal processes within the regulatory body.

He challenged the High Court judgement in the Supreme Court after Masuku’s 2019 ruling.

Null and void

In its judgement, the country’s highest court ruled in favour of Hashagen when it set aside the High Court order, further declaring PAAB’s decision to charge Hashagen null and void.

The charges against Hashagen stemmed from an investigation into alleged misconduct at Namfisa in 2009 and his conclusion that a disciplinary process should be brought against Ritter.

Ritter claimed he was being persecuted for insisting on further probes against several senior political figures allegedly implicated in the missing estimated N$660 million from the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) through botched loans.

Ritter also alleged that some employees at Namfisa were involved in the cover-up of the GIPF investigation.

After his departure from Namfisa, mainly due to Hashhagen’s findings, Ritter laid a complaint against Hashagen with PAAB and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Namibia (ICAN) alleging that Hashagen had omitted crucial information from his report to Namfisa.