Airport bosses charged

SUSPENDED Namibia Airports Company chief executive Tamer El-Kallawi is facing up to 36 charges of corruption, bribery, fraud and dishonesty.

Documents show that El-Kallawi’s ally, NAC’s engineering department boss, Courage Silombela, is also facing up to 15 charges of fraud, forgery, dishonesty and abuse of the airports company’s property.

The two were not reachable for comment yesterday, but understands the NAC board charged them for their role in the awarding of tenders worth over N$450 million.

A Deloitte forensic investigation report on NAC released in August 2017 confirms the suspicion of rife corruption at the parastatal that manages eight national airports.

The investigators also said former NAC board member Frieda Aluteni should face criminal charges for her previous role at the company.

reported two weeks ago that El-Kallawi and Silombela could be charged with corruption.

The Deloitte report provides context on how El-Kallawi and Silombela operated.

One of the cases cited in the forensic report was about a February 2014 meeting between El-Kallawi and former engineering general manager Mwangi Wa-Kamau.

The two met at a restaurant outside the entrance to the Sanlam Centre Building in Windhoek, just across the Zoo Park along Independence Avenue.

Wa-Kamau gave the details of the meeting in a statement he made to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in April 2014 which was later obtained by Deloitte.

Wa-Kamau said El-Kallawi informed him that the tender to install surveillance cameras at Eros and Hosea Kutako airports had been awarded to Syntex Technologies.

He said he raised concerns with El-Kallawi that the NAC had awarded a N$15 million contract to Syntex whose bid was the highest.

“The acting chief executive (El-Kallawi) told me he would ‘take care’ of me (bribe) with N$500 000 for implementing the project,” Wa-Kamau said.

He added: “In shock, I declined his ‘offer’ and left him at the restaurant.”

Wa-Kamau was suspended in March 2014, a few weeks after the restaurant meeting.

reported on the suspension in 2014 although there was no explanation given for it.

With Wa-Kamau out of the way, El-Kallawi played his next card – he invited NAC’s executive for the strategic business unit, Norman Pule, to his office on 24 March 2014.

Pule informed the ACC that El-Kallawi told him during the meeting that “there was money to be made from the upcoming aviation security tenders”.

Aviation security tenders, according to the Deloitte report, referred to scanner tenders worth over N$70 million.

Pule also said El-Kallawi asked him to lie to the ACC that Wa-Kamau, who was on suspension, is behind the corruption at NAC.

“In return for these false statements, El-Kallawi promised me the position of general manager: operations and engineering for the NAC,” Pule said.

Pule declined El-Kallawi’s offer because he is “not that type of person,” the report said.

When Pule rejected the offer, El-Kallawi met Silombela, who was the NAC senior manager for maintenance and civil works in early 2014.

A few months after the meeting, Silombela was appointed the strategic executive for projects, information technology and engineering in 2014.

This made him the overall boss for the department and an easier link to top contracts such as airport renovations and scanner tenders.

Silombela told the ACC that El-Kallawi might have influenced his promotion as engineering boss.

El-Kallawi wanted to use that information against Wa-Kamau during his disciplinary hearing, Silombela said.

Silombela said he promised El-Kallawi to look for dirt on his suspended colleague but found none.

The shifting of managers appears to have been a deliberate tactic to push through questionable tenders worth over N$450 million in the space of a few years.

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