By: Justicia Shipena
Swapo Party deputy president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah denied knowledge of the N$44 million in fishing quotas which former Fishcor CEO Mike Nghipunya said was paid to the party.
Nghipunya told the Windhoek High Court on Wednesday during his bail hearing that a third-party fishing quota was allocated to the Swapo Party.
The N$44 million horse mackerel quota was allocated by former fisheries minister Bernhard Esau allocated to the party in 2017, according to Nghipunya, adding that Fishcor did not handle the quota.
According to him, the money of a horse mackerel quota worth 18 800 metric tonnes was paid to the party through Sisa Namandje & Co and De Klerk Horn Coetzee law firms.
In November 2017, Swapo had an elective congress in which President Hage Geingob was elected as party leader.
Nghipunya said the proceeds of the fishing quota was paid to the party.
“We received this fishing quota allocation and explained to auditors that it will be paid directly to beneficiaries. We received orders from minister Bernard Esau that we must implement it as such, and for the sake of sensitivity, we must call it government objectives,” he said.
According to Nghipunya, quotas are determined by the ministry of fisheries.
“The quota under this agreement when it comes to government objective, it was allocated to Fishcor.”
He added that the beneficiaries of the quota of the third party of the government objective are also decided by the ministry of fisheries.
“I don’t play any role in the third-party quota, but I have a role that I play on the governmental allocation for Fishcor.”
He emphasised that the state-owned company is not mandated to present when the beneficiary is a third party.
“The governmental objective third party quotas are not for Fishcor, and it is not recorded in the financial books of Fishcor,” he said.
However, he said there were times when Fishcor would get a quota.
“This is done when a company is vessel-owned. In this case, the quota will then be passed onto Fishcor.”
Nghipunya said whenever the quota is allocated; some proceeds do not go to Fishcor.
“This process says we sell the quota, and the proceeds will be sold directly to the beneficiaries. We are not responsible for how the beneficiaries receive their proceeds,” he testified.
Nghipunya told the court that there was no money missing, as alleged by the State.
“Just because the money was not paid to Fishcor does not mean the money is missing.”
Nghipunya further denied allegations that he was receiving two salaries while at Fishcor, arguing that the State or the investigators of the fishrot case do not understand how salaries and allowance work when one is seconded.
According to him, one is then given an allowance as an inconvenience by the government when you are seconded.
“Fishcor decided to pay me my salary while I was getting an allowance from the government,” he stressed.
The bail hearing will resume tomorrow at 09h00 at the Windhoek High Court.
Nghipunya and his co-accused are facing charges of laundering millions of state funds, fraud and corruption in the fishrot scandal.
When contacted for comment on the matter by The Villager, the Secretary-General of Swapo, Sophia Shaningwa, said she was in a meeting.
But during the National Assembly session on Wednesday afternoon, following Nghipunya’s revelation, Nandi-Ndaitwah denied this.
“To the best of my knowledge, as the vice president of Swapo. I am not aware of that money made available into Swapo accounts. And if you go to the Swapo accounts and get it, that will be news for me. For other accounts that are outside Swapo, that is not under the control of Swapo. I cannot comment on issues outside Swapo as well as the activities of individual Swapo members,” she said.
