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Graft charges haunt NHE
NATIONAL Housing Enterprise (NHE) bosses could be facing corruption charges again.
The Namibian understands that both NHE Chief Executive Officer Vinson Hailulu and Board Chairman Gerhard Tötemeyer are going to be charged with corruption.
Reliable sources informed The Namibian that Prosecutor General Martha Imalwa had decided to charge the two.
Imalwa yesterday refused to comment on the allegation, referring all questions to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Hailulu and Tötemeyer are not expected to be arrested, though, since Hailulu had already been arrested on the same charges in November 2008.
The High Court ruled in March last year that all criminal charges against Hailulu be dropped.
The High Court made the ruling after Hailulu had asked it to review and set aside the corruption charges against him.
Sources close to the ACC told The Namibian that Hailulu and Tötemeyer would receive new summons to appear in court to answer to the graft charges.
At least three of the charges against the CEO were directly related to a private consultancy he runs with Tötemeyer. The venture has been consistently criticised by trade unions and others as constituting a conflict of interest.
The Namibian at the time quoted ACC boss Paulus Noa as saying that the consultancy business, New Paradigm Consultancy, was established in violation of Hailulu’s employment contract.
In addition, it was alleged that Tötemeyer’s subsistence and travel allowance rate as NHE board chairman had been corruptly increased by Hailulu to N$1 500 a day instead of an approved amount of N$400 a day.
By the time of going to press Noa could not be reached for comment.
Tötemeyer said he was in Germany but told The Namibian that he had not received anything from the ACC or the PG’s office.
Hailulu could not be reached for comment.
