SOE suspensions crippling
The DTA is of the view that suspensions at parastatals have a compounding effect on their already weak financial performance.
The DTA has expressed concern over the regular suspensions of top executives at SOEs saying it is financially crippling for these companies that already rely on government bailouts for their survival.
DTA secretary-general Manuel Ngaringombe said the boards of directors at SOEs must either intervene sooner or the Ministry of Public Enterprises must urgently devise a strategy to overcome this governance problem.
“The Namibian economy can simply not afford to carry the financial burden of an SOE sector governed through golden handshakes.”
Ngaringombe added said that over the past year not a month has gone by in which one or other SOE has not seen a suspended CEO or other senior executives.
According to him, almost all of these suspensions are done with full pay under the guise that keeping them in their positions could hinder investigations.
The suspensions at TransNamib and Meatco are just two of the more recent examples, he said.
Ngaringombe said the problem is that the public never hears what happens to these investigations and in the majority of the cases these officials end up either returning to their positions or agreeing to multimillion-dollar release packages and being given a “golden handshake”.
“This is not even taking into account that they were suspended with full pay and benefits while someone else may have been brought in to perform their duties. Meaning effectively during the period of suspension two people are paid to do the same job.”
He said that the state of affairs at SOEs has now become common practice and continues to hinder service delivery while at the same time it results in the loss of millions of dollars – both those lost during the alleged corrupt activities and that which is lost during release payments.
“It is puzzling that SOEs with expensively assembled boards have been permitted to continue with this economically crippling practice despite the establishment of a ministry which we were lead to believe would improve the governance and efficiency of SOEs.”
According to him this all comes at a time when the Namibian economy cannot afford to carry such heavy losses and the periods of low productivity, which accompany suspensions.
“Why is it that boards only seem to intervene once matters have reached the stage where suspension and termination are the only options available to them? The mistake we make is appointing the same people to every single board in the country, even where incidences of fraud and corruption took place under their watch whilst they served on other boards.”
Ngaringombe said that the role of the boards of directors has either not been cleared up or SOE boards are simply failing to perform their supervisory functions. “And yet the same individuals keep being rotated from board to board.”
ELLANIE SMIT
DTA secretary-general Manuel Ngaringombe said the boards of directors at SOEs must either intervene sooner or the Ministry of Public Enterprises must urgently devise a strategy to overcome this governance problem.
“The Namibian economy can simply not afford to carry the financial burden of an SOE sector governed through golden handshakes.”
Ngaringombe added said that over the past year not a month has gone by in which one or other SOE has not seen a suspended CEO or other senior executives.
According to him, almost all of these suspensions are done with full pay under the guise that keeping them in their positions could hinder investigations.
The suspensions at TransNamib and Meatco are just two of the more recent examples, he said.
Ngaringombe said the problem is that the public never hears what happens to these investigations and in the majority of the cases these officials end up either returning to their positions or agreeing to multimillion-dollar release packages and being given a “golden handshake”.
“This is not even taking into account that they were suspended with full pay and benefits while someone else may have been brought in to perform their duties. Meaning effectively during the period of suspension two people are paid to do the same job.”
He said that the state of affairs at SOEs has now become common practice and continues to hinder service delivery while at the same time it results in the loss of millions of dollars – both those lost during the alleged corrupt activities and that which is lost during release payments.
“It is puzzling that SOEs with expensively assembled boards have been permitted to continue with this economically crippling practice despite the establishment of a ministry which we were lead to believe would improve the governance and efficiency of SOEs.”
According to him this all comes at a time when the Namibian economy cannot afford to carry such heavy losses and the periods of low productivity, which accompany suspensions.
“Why is it that boards only seem to intervene once matters have reached the stage where suspension and termination are the only options available to them? The mistake we make is appointing the same people to every single board in the country, even where incidences of fraud and corruption took place under their watch whilst they served on other boards.”
Ngaringombe said that the role of the boards of directors has either not been cleared up or SOE boards are simply failing to perform their supervisory functions. “And yet the same individuals keep being rotated from board to board.”
ELLANIE SMIT
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