RFA Starts Disciplinary Hearing of Top Brass

Tileni Mongudhi

13 June 2011

The disciplinary hearing of three Road Fund Administration (RFA) top managers will start today despite Cabinet attempting to stop the process.

The RFA board is said to be adamant that it made the correct decision and was well within its right to suspend chief executive officer Penda Kiiyala, the company’s finance manager, Desmond Basson, and accountant Talaska Katjiruru. The three were suspended on May 20 following alleged revelations of administrative malfunction at the parastatal.

Cabinet discussed the RFA matter the following week and as a result Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila wrote to the board stating that Government had decided that the Auditor General (AG) would carry out an investigation into the affairs of RFA. The letter further stated that it would be up to the AG to decide who should be suspended. The board did not comply with the instructions, allegedly stating that it was exercising its fiduciary duties towards the company.

In the meantime sources in the know say that the relationship between the board and Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, who is the appointing authority, has broken down. A source close to RFA also told The Namibian that Kuugongelwa-Amadhila was protecting Kiiyala.

Kuugongelwa-Amadhila yesterday confirmed that she was aware of the hearing that is scheduled to start today. She said she did not instruct the board to call off the suspension but rather “relayed Government’s position” that it feels that it should conduct the investigation via the AG’s office.

“No one is being protected,” she said, adding that Cabinet did not make the decision to protect any of the suspended managers. She added that she was going to inform Cabinet of the latest happenings so that it can take the necessary steps to resolve the situation at the RFA.

The Namibian was also informed that the RFA board has started to copy Prime Minister Nahas Angula in their correspondence with the Finance Minister.

Kiiyala, Basson and Katjiruru were suspended amid irregularities concerning the collection of cross-border charges (CBCs) by Iroko Investments on behalf of the RFA. The other reason is said to be human resources related, although the details have not been revealed.

Sources at the company said the suspension came after auditing firm Deloitte conducted a forensic audit into the situation at various border posts where the CBCs are supposed to be collected. Deloitte investigated whether income received by Iroko Investments, the company contracted to collect funds on behalf of the RFA, had been correctly calculated.

The audit was also supposed to look at whether Iroko and the RFA have kept to their contractual obligations. A source at the RFA said the audit report revealed massive irregularities and that the RFA is said to have been losing huge sums of money due to a lack of controls during the collection process. Basson is responsible for managing the contract with Iroko while Katjiruru is the RFA accountant who is responsible for dealing with Iroko.

Meanwhile, the RFA’s head of programme management, policy and advice, Jean Nsengiyumva, is acting as CEO, while serving his resignation notice till the end of July. Nsengiyumva resigned on the same day Kiiyala was suspended.

He is said to have reluctantly agreed to act, as the board wanted him to be the caretaker. The RFA board could not be reached for comment yesterday.

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