By: Kelvin Chiringa
The Walvis Bay municipality’s continued refusal to make public a final PWC audit report into the missing N$24 million mass housing saga has been met with scorn and anger by some councillors.
High placed sources have disclosed that N$6 million was spent on the forensic audit, which found no malfeasance.
The source disclosed that a further N$1.5 million was allocated to lawyers Seena and Kopplinger Boltman, none of it approved by council.
This, according to the source, was done by the mayor and a general manager for finance, who later became the Walvis bay acting CEO.
Lawyer, Richard Metcalfe, confirmed the figures.
“It is on record that the forensic audit cost N$6 million, and another N$1 million-plus has been allocated for payment to Seena Labour Consultants and lawyers for Disciplinary proceedings,” he said.
The missing N$24 million of the mass urban servicing project resulted in the suspension of the chief executive officer, Muronga Haingura, general manager Agostino Victor, housing and properties manager Jack Manale, and property clerk Connie Summers.
But these have since been reinstated at the back of ongoing Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) investigations.
Former Walvis Bay councillor Knowledge Ipinge brought the matter before the ACC, who confiscated the officials’ laptops.
Investigations carried out by Eagle FM have unearthed that the matter reached a boiling point last month with questions fired in the mayor’s direction.
There are concerns about whether the urban and rural development minister, Erastus Uutoni, was informed about the investigations.
Councillors are said to be in the dark, which has caused outrage. At the same time, the council took a resolution to get legal services to investigate the PWC forensic audit report to take disciplinary steps against the implicated.
The council also seems to be in the dark on how much has been used in taxpayers’ money to get such legal service.
The PWC report was presented on 21 July 2021, but there is no clarity on what steps have been taken ever since.
Councillors have thus demanded a progress report to see what action was taken.
There are concerns that since taxpayers’ money was used to pay for the audit, action must be taken against those that have stood in the way of implementing its recommendations.
Mayor Trevino Forbes has been asked why, after almost nine months, suspended staff members were reinstated back to work on 1 September 2021 without any discussion on the outcome of the audit report.
Documents also show that until this moment, six months have now elapsed without feedback from the legal services appointed to look into the forensic audit report until this moment.
Concerns on possible conflict of interest have risen on the back of disclosure that some officials implicated in the forensic audit report were allowed to participate in the procurement process of the legal services to look into disciplinary action.
“Why is council not aware, informed or consulted of all the above? How much fairness and justice should such a secretive information process be? Is the municipal council still pursuing legal services? If yes, why are we not aware and informed about any progress?
“Is the municipal council not accountable to Walvis Bay residents and community members anymore, until when should communities wait to know about the most anticipated missing N$24 million, all implicated municipal staff members as per the PWC Audit report and recommendations, how have public funds been spent and how much more public funds will be spent,” councillors have asked the mayor.
