Goeiemann hits back at Schlettwein

The permanent secretary in the ministry of works and transport, Willem Goeiemann, is challenging a bid to have part of his duties revoked as accounting officer.

This stems from a decision taken to award the upgrading of Hosea Kutako International Airport to a Chinese construction firm, Auhui Foreign Economic Construction Corporation.

Goeiemann has maintained that he was only the conduit through which the decision to award the tender to Auhui was announced and that he never decided who the successful tenderer would be.

He further claimed that a decision to award the tender had been made long before his appointment as permanent secretary in the ministry of works and transport.

Responding to allegation that he had contravened sections of the State Finance Act, Goeiemann maintained that he was not to be blamed for the mess that was the awarding of the multibillion-dollar tender to Auhui.

According to him, key discussions had taken place prior to his appointment as permanent secretary, at which time the tender had been in the works for eight years already.

In a letter to the permanent secretary in September, finance minister Calle Schlettwein accused Goeiemann of contravening sections of the State Finance Act. According to Schlettwein, Goeiemann in his capacity as permanent secretary, had awarded the Hosea Kutako tender to Auhui Foreign Economic Construction Corporation.

The tender was set aside by the Supreme Court following a ruling that it had been unlawfully awarded.

Writing through his lawyers DHC Incorporated, Goeiemann notified Schlettwein that in terms of his appointment, he was only accountable to the president, prime minister and his line minister, making him in no way accountable to Schlettwein.

He said his appointment was made on the recommendation of the Public Service Commission in terms of Section 11 of the Public Service Act.

Goeiemann said Schlettwein had been a central witness to events leading up to the awarding of the tender, ranging from meetings with the Namibia Airports Company, meetings held between the ministries of works and transport and the ministry of finance, as well as meetings held between the prime minister and senior ministers to discuss the details of the project.

The decision to award the tender to Auhui was discussed at numerous meetings between the NAC, the ministries of finance and works and transport, at cabinet meetings and at meetings at State House where the president was present, Goeiemann further claimed.

Goeiemann also suggested that Schlettwein shared in the responsibility for the awarding of the tender.

“Our client cannot be held responsible for the collective decision. The minister is fully aware that this was a decision mandated not only by the minister of works, but also a result of a collective decision-making process that was initiated prior to our client being appointed permanent secretary,” Goeiemann's lawyers wrote.

Goeiemann then proceeded to accuse Schlettwein of trying to save face for his involvement in the tender process.

“It is abundantly clear that those involved in the decision-making process, including the minister of finance, wanted to distance themselves from that decision and seek to in effect blame the messenger,” Goeiemann's lawyers wrote, adding: “It suits the minister of finance to do this and thus avoid his personal responsibility for what happened, and more generally that of government in what actually happened.”

According to Goeiemann, Schlettwein was fully aware that the decision to award the tender was not only mandated by the minister of works and transport, but as the result of a collective decision making process, involving Schlettwein himself as well.

In a meeting held at State House on 18 December 2015, it was decided that the tender would awarded, at which point Schlettwein never raised opposition to the planned activities, Goeiemann said. During the discussions held with President Hage Geingob, Schlettwein never stated whether it would be preferable for construction to span over the initially planned 36 months or over a five-year period.

Goeiemann also said Schlettwein never objected to the approved bidder, nor did he say that funding was not available for the airport upgrade.

In closing, Goeiemann's lawyers called Schlettwein's notice a sham. “The substantive charges levelled against our client are entirely without factual or legal foundation,” his lawyers wrote.

They demanded that Schlettwein apologise to Goeiemann and withdraw his notice to have some of Goeiemann's responsibilities revoked.

The Supreme Court had ruled in March that the awarding of the tender to Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group was unlawful. Neither the ministry of works nor its permanent secretary, Goeiemann, had the power to award the contract, it found.

“The award by the permanent secretary of the ministry of works and transport, set out in his letter of 3 December 2015 of the tender for the upgrading and expansion of the airport, is declared unlawful and null and void and set aside,” the Supreme Court ruling said.

OGONE TLHAGE