NALAO slams 'frivolous' CEO suspensions

WINDHOEK ELLANIE SMIT

An organisation representing municipal senior officials claims that chief executive officers are being intimidated and targeted with disciplinary action to force them to compromise their professional integrity and to implement unlawful decisions.
They claim that often the charges levelled against CEOs do not reach a disciplinary hearing and their contracts are just allowed to run out - to the detriment of development and progress in towns across the country.
According to Nate Areseb, the CEO of the Namibian Association of Local Authority Officers (NALAO), suspensions are dragged out because most of the "so-called charges" would never be able to stand the test of a fair disciplinary hearing.
Currently six towns - Keetmanshoop, Maltahöhe, Karibib, Henties Bay, Usakos and Witvlei - are without a CEO.
Nate said there is no timeframe within which a person must be charged.
"Unfortunately local authorities do not have the same provision that is in the public service that a person must be charged within a prescribed period of time and failing to do so the person has to be reinstated. This is what enables councils to suspend CEOs until their contracts expire."
Areseb cited some examples and said this had happened in an earlier case some years ago in Oshakati, where the CEO was suspended for over two years until his contract expired.
He also said that the former CEO of Usakos, Joseph Jantze, was suspended and the council waited for the expiry of his five-year contract, while the same fate befell the former CEO of Henties Bay, Peter Gurirab, who was also suspended until his contract ran out.
"Our investigations indicate that the Keetmanshoop municipal council is following the same strategy to try and wait for the expiry of its CEO Paul Vleermuis's contract in October this year," said Areseb.
According to him, in most cases local councils opt for lengthy suspensions because there is no case in the first place.
He added that an official should only be suspended when there is sufficient evidence and a reasonable suspicion that he or she might interfere with an investigation.
"However, in all of the CEOs' cases the suspension is actually used as tool for intimidation and punishment to force CEOs to compromise their professional integrity and to implement unlawful decisions," said Areseb.
"If you ask me it is called 'personalitics' and not politics that is the cause of this turmoil in local authorities."
Areseb said that generally acting CEOs are overcautious in decision-making.
"Everything is done in an atmosphere of tentativeness, thus without strong executive leadership many projects and programmes suffer and service delivery is compromised."
He said instability in the relationship between the council and its management also results in low staff morale and loss of productivity. As a result, services to residents suffer.
Another consequence is that such instability scares away potential investors, harming local economic development and job creation.
Areseb mentioned that in the case of Usakos even the budget and tariff adjustments that were supposed to be sent to the Ministry of Regional and Local Government before the end of the financial year on June 30 were not submitted on time.
Although the new financial year started on July 1, the new tariffs cannot be applied because they have not been published in the Government Gazette.