Pokolo hands himself over to police

The human resources manager at the Novanam fishing company, David Pokolo, surrendered himself to the police on Friday after a warrant was issued for his arrest. Pokolo has been accused of involvement in a pension scam at NovaNam worth millions of dollars. The Lüderitz police yesterday confirmed that Pokolo handed himself over to the police last week. They gave no further details. The police have been investigating pension fraud at the fishing company which led to Pokolo's recent suspension. Pokolo is apparently not the only suspect in the scam and various top officials at NovaNam are said to be involved. The scam was exposed after a retired worker discovered that his pension benefits invested with Old Mutual had been paid into an unknown account and a case of fraud was opened with the Lüderitz police. NovaNam is investigating the alleged irregularities independently and has ordered Old Mutual to stop all pension payments to allow a full forensic audit that would allow the company to determine the extent of the scam. Since the pension scam came to light, investigations by the police as well as the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) have been launched at the company while workers have insisted on seeing pension statements to make sure their money is safe. WINDHOEK ELLANIE SMIT