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Thursday, September 22, 2005 - Web posted at 6:51:00 GMT Hiveluah's resignation shrouded in secrecy * WERNER MENGESTHE terms of Social Security Commission Chief Executive Officer Tuli Hiveluah's resignation still have to be discussed and possibly endorsed by the SSC board, an SSC spokesperson said yesterday. |
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Hiveluah was set to face a disciplinary hearing this week at which he would have had to face charges related to the botched Avid-SSC N$30 million investment deal. Charges included that he acted unlawfully in signing a document that authorised the transfer of the N$30 million to Avid in January. David Keendjele, who has been acting as CEO of the SSC since Hiveluah was suspended from his post on August 10, on Tuesday announced that Hiveluah had tendered his resignation with effect from Wednesday last week. "It is worth mentioning that the resignation was handled by the lawyers representing the Commission and those of Mr Hiveluah," Keendjele stated in the announcement. "As such the Commission only received notice of Mr Hiveluah's resignation on 19 September 2005." George Simataa, the General Manager: Human Resources at the SCC, who has been assigned to act as a spokesperson on Hiveluah's resignation, added yesterday that the terms of the former CEO's exit from his post - including whether he would receive an exit package - still have to be discussed by the SSC's board at a meeting scheduled for next Thursday. Until that has been done, even the SSC itself is not in the know about what deal its lawyers had struck with Hiveluah's on his resignation, Simataa said. Had Hiveluah not resigned from his post last week, he would have had to answer to a series of disciplinary charges over his role in the SSC's decision to invest N$30 million with an unproven asset management company, Avid Investment Corporation, at a disciplinary hearing this week. According to a source close to the arrangements for the disciplinary hearing, all the charges that Hiveluah would have faced relate to the SSC's investment deal with Avid. These included complaints of dereliction of duty, poor performance in his job, exceeding his powers as CEO, not informing the SSC's Commission - its version of a board of directors - of relevant issues, and of acting unlawfully in signing a document that authorised the transfer of the N$30 million to Avid in January. Underpinning the charges was a decision that the Commission took in November last year that the SSC would not to make use of asset managers for investments any more, the source explained. Yet in January, Hiveluah and two colleagues in the SSC's management, the now former Manager: Corporate Finance, Gideon Mulder, and the suspended General Manager: Finance and Administration, Avril Green, signed off on the investment of N$30 million with Avid, after the company had allegedly used claims of being well-connected politically while it was lobbying the SSC to secure the deal. In addition to that, the Social Security Commission Act requires that investments by the SSC should be approved by the Minister of Labour, which had not been done with the SSC-Avid deal, it was to be claimed at Hiveluah's disciplinary hearing. Green and Mulder together signed a letter dated January 21, in which Avid was informed that the SSC had decided to invest N$30 million with the young company for a four-month period at an offered interest rate of 14,65 per cent a year. Green has since claimed that he soon had second thoughts about that decision, and that he gave instructions that the deal had to be cancelled. He has claimed that in his absence Mulder and Hiveluah nevertheless went ahead with the investment. Mulder and Hiveluah together signed an instruction, also dated January 21, to the SSC's bank to transfer N$30 million to Avid. Hiveluah's signature was dated January 27 - but according to SSC bank statements, the N$30 million was transferred to Avid on the previous day, January 26, already. The SSC dismissed Mulder from his post in the second half of May. Green was suspended on July 18 over his role in the SSC-Avid deal. He is still to face a disciplinary hearing. Hiveluah was appointed as the CEO of the SSC for a five-year period in January last year. Before that, he had been the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication. He had also been Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour previously. The Namibian has made repeated efforts to contact Hiveluah over the past two weeks. In this time, he could never be reached on his telephone. |
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