Agribank board under pressure

THE Ministry of Finance has tightened the screws on Agribank directors, ordering management to stop dealing with the board.

Agribank management has also been instructed to withhold sitting payments for the directors and bar them from entering the premises of the parastatal. The order not to pay the directors sitting allowances was signed by Deputy Finance Minister Clara Bohitile on Tuesday, and it was sent to the finance manager of Agribank.The Deputy Minister’s order was communicated to the directors on the same day, interrupting an urgent session called by the board.Bohitile then informed the management that new members of the board of directors would be appointed shortly.Yesterday Bohitile insisted that there was no deadlock between the directors and the Ministry of Finance.”There is no deadlock,” Bohitile declared.”The board was asked to resign.They must just resign.”Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila last week demanded that the directors resign immediately after refusing to endorse her appointment of Lands Minister Isak Katali as acting chief executive officer.The board, which complained of interference by Kuugongelwa-Amadhila in the past, said Katali was not “suitably qualified” and lacked the relevant experience to run the financial institution.It was the final straw for Kuugongelwa-Amadhila who has clashed with the board over the appointment of a permanent CEO since last year.The directors then refused to resign as directed.The move prompted the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development, Helmut Angula, to withdraw Patricia Keeja as the ministry’s representative from the five-member board.Fired Agribank chairman Dr Franz Stellmacher said yesterday that although they had not resigned, it was a foregone conclusion that they had been ejected.”If you look at the history of what has happened, the whole thing stinks.I’m not a board member anymore as far as the Minister is concerned,” said Stellmacher.The Congress of Democrats entered the fray yesterday saying an earlier appointment of board member Maureen Hinda, as CEO smelled of “nepotism and corruption” as her cousin, Keeja, did not recuse herself from the meetings.The party also criticised Kuugongelwa-Amadhila for arguing that Katali’s rejection was “undermining national interest”.”It is this stupidity of a narrow definition of the national interest which reduces the interest of the country to the practise of job preservation for Swapo socalled loyal members and in the end, Swapo Oshiwambo-speaking people.”The order not to pay the directors sitting allowances was signed by Deputy Finance Minister Clara Bohitile on Tuesday, and it was sent to the finance manager of Agribank.The Deputy Minister’s order was communicated to the directors on the same day, interrupting an urgent session called by the board.Bohitile then informed the management that new members of the board of directors would be appointed shortly.Yesterday Bohitile insisted that there was no deadlock between the directors and the Ministry of Finance.”There is no deadlock,” Bohitile declared.”The board was asked to resign.They must just resign.”Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila last week demanded that the directors resign immediately after refusing to endorse her appointment of Lands Minister Isak Katali as acting chief executive officer.The board, which complained of interference by Kuugongelwa-Amadhila in the past, said Katali was not “suitably qualified” and lacked the relevant experience to run the financial institution.It was the final straw for Kuugongelwa-Amadhila who has clashed with the board over the appointment of a permanent CEO since last year.The directors then refused to resign as directed.The move prompted the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development, Helmut Angula, to withdraw Patricia Keeja as the ministry’s representative from the five-member board.Fired Agribank chairman Dr Franz Stellmacher said yesterday that although they had not resigned, it was a foregone conclusion that they had been ejected.”If you look at the history of what has happened, the whole thing stinks.I’m not a board member anymore as far as the Minister is concerned,” said Stellmacher.The Congress of Democrats entered the fray yesterday saying an earlier appointment of board member Maureen Hinda, as CEO smelled of “nepotism and corruption” as her cousin, Keeja, did not recuse herself from the meetings.The party also criticised Kuugongelwa-Amadhila for arguing that Katali’s rejection was “undermining national interest”.”It is this stupidity of a narrow definition of the national interest which reduces the interest of the country to the practise of job preservation for Swapo socalled loyal members and in the end, Swapo Oshiwambo-speaking people.”