‘Briefcase’ Namgomar got quotas under fake agreement

JEMIMA BEUKES







WINDHOEK

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) lead investigator Andreas Kanyangela told the court on Friday that the 50 000 metric tonne horse mackerel fishing quotas were fraudulently allocated to Angolan entity Namgomar Pesca Limitada.

Kanyangela, testifying in the bail application of Ricardo Gustavo, said - in fact - Namgomar Pesca Limitada did not exist, calling it a “briefcase company”. Officially, Namgomar Pesca Limitada, allegedly owned by João de Barros, son of former Angolan fisheries minister Victoria de Barros, is purported to be the parent company of Namgomar Pesca Namibia – for which Gustavo was a sole director.

According to him, then attorney general Albert Kawana advised former fisheries minister Bernhardt Esau to downgrade the draft fisheries bilateral agreement to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) after it came to light that the Angolans did not want to enter into a binding agreement.

With the assistance of Gustavo, this bilateral agreement was downgraded to a MoU that was eventually gazetted in July 2015.

However, fishing quotas were allocated to Namgomar Pesca Limitada under the initial draft bilateral agreement.

This despite the fact that the ungazetted bilateral agreement was already signed on 18 June 2014, which indicates that the quotas given to Namgomar Pesca Namibia were unlawfully allocated.

No business

Kanyangela explained that leading up to the ratification of this agreement, several meetings took place in both countries, attended by a delegation including James Hatuikulipi, Tamson Hatuikulipi, Gustavo, whistle-blower Johannes Stefansson and Sacky Shanghala, the chairperson of the Law Reform and Development Commission at the time, being the only government official.

ACC contests that James, Tamson and Gustavo were never employed by the government of Namibia and thus had no business negotiating this MoU between two sovereign governments.

There is also no evidence proving that the quotas caught in Namibia were indeed exported to Angola for the benefit of Namgomar Pesca Limitada, nor is there evidence available that these quotas or fish were sold in Namibia for the benefit of the Namibian people, Kanyangela said.

“An indication was clearly made in the MoU that this agreement was entered into to secure food security and to create jobs for the nationals of the two [countries], and we did not come across any documents showing that Namgomar Pesca Namibia ever employed Namibians or distributed fish to the local population,” he added during his cross examination on Friday.

According to him, Namgomar Pesca Limitada SA, the Angolan entity, received a total of 50 000 metric tonnes between July 2014 and 2019, per an agreement set by Gustavo and Esja Holdings for a period of 10 years.

Only a few benefit

The usage agreement stipulated the price of a metric tonne at N$500, while Esja entered into several fishing agreements with Fishcor where the price of metric tonne was between N$1 500 and N$3 000.

Kanyangela told the court that this memorandum of agreement between Namibia and Angola directed that Namgomar Pesca Namibia would set up a joint venture comprised of Namibians and Angolans.

However, so far, no evidence is available to prove that this joint venture was in fact set up.

“So, one can conclude that the quotas that Namgomar Pesca Limitada SA received were fraudulently received or were fraudulently awarded just to the benefit of the co-accused of Gustavo, which can also confirm the allegation that key business people and top government officials used this MoU corruptly to benefit themselves,” Kanyangela said.

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