Jooste reins in board fees

New guidelines have been introduced to place a cap on the board fees paid by parastatals to their boards of directors, public enterprises minister Leon Jooste has confirmed.According to Jooste, a recent directive to limit board meetings to four times a year has been issued in the hope that this will rein in expensive fees demanded by directors of public entities.“We are clamping down on board fees. We have issued a directive limiting board meetings to four per year unless they request an exemption for particular reasons,” said Jooste.This comes in response to revelations that newly established parastatal, Namibia Desert Diamonds (Namdia), paid its directors an average of well over N$90 000 each to attend a board meeting.“We have managed to curb expenses and board members now have to ask permission from the ministry before they are allowed to travel abroad. Board fees are equally captured in our new guidelines,” said Jooste.Market Watch reported this week that Namdia's seven directors, chairman Advocate Shakespeare Masiza, Venondjo Maharero, Chris Nghaamwa, Florentia Amuenje, Lorentha Harases, Bonifatius Konjore and Tania Hangula, had pocketed massive board fees, according to Namdia's annual report. Masiza received N$616 597 in total - a fee of N$595 000 and expense allowances of N$21 597. The other directors earned N$560 000 each. Maharero also received N$17 279 as expense allowances.According to the annual report, six board meetings took place during the 11 months under review - an inaugural one from 12 to 13 August 2016, followed by a monthly meeting in September, October, November and December 2016, as well as one in February 2017. This translates into a director's fee of about N$93 333 each per sitting, while the chairman's fee was an average of N$99 167 per meeting.Last year, the former board of the embattled the Namibia Financial Students Assistance Fund (NSFAF) met over 10 times in one financial year alone.Weekly newspaper The Patriot reported that NSFAF board members had each raked in N$600 000 in board sitting fees alone between 5 April 2017 and 6 December 2017.The chairperson is entitled to claim N$10 580 for chairing a meeting, while other board directors claim N$5 983. Several officials that The Patriot spoke to said board members at bigger public enterprises can earn up to N$20 000 just for attending a board meeting.By comparison, the Bank of Namibia (BoN) sitting fees for its non-executive board of directors in 2017 was only N$644 000. Only five of the six non-executive directors received a fee, with finance permanent secretary Ericah Shafudah rendering her services for free. The BoN held eight board meetings in 2017, according to its annual report.OGONE TLHAGE

Jooste reins in board fees

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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Jooste reins in board fees

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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