Council fails to pay workers

WORKERS brought the activities of the Keetmanshoop Town Council to an abrupt halt yesterday after the authority failed to pay their monthly salaries.

The Council usually pays its employees on the last day of each month. In a separate development, the council also endorsed the December 7 resignation of its CEO, Jeremia Shangadi, and asked him to vacate his office by yesterday.The decision was taken in the absence of the Mayor, Fiina Elago, and Councillor Pieter Visser who walked out of the meeting when the issue came up for discussion.Salaries weren’t paid because the only person responsible for the payroll in the finance department had been booked off sick.The Namibian was reliably informed that Ingrid Coleman, one of four suspects who allegedly defrauded Council of more than N$700 000, has been booked off for “acute stress” until the end of February.Yesterday, it emerged that she is the only staff member who can prepare the municipal staff payroll.A well-placed source told The Namibian that the majority of councillors had proposed that a private person who could operate the system be called in to salvage the situation.However some employees felt that workers’ salaries should be kept confidential, and poured cold water on the proposal.It was then agreed that they should wait for Coleman, who was in Windhoek and was travelling back to Keetmanshoop yesterday, and that she should come in and process the workers’ salaries.It is expected that the workers will now get their salaries today or tomorrow.In a separate development, the council also endorsed the December 7 resignation of its CEO, Jeremia Shangadi, and asked him to vacate his office by yesterday.The decision was taken in the absence of the Mayor, Fiina Elago, and Councillor Pieter Visser who walked out of the meeting when the issue came up for discussion.Salaries weren’t paid because the only person responsible for the payroll in the finance department had been booked off sick.The Namibian was reliably informed that Ingrid Coleman, one of four suspects who allegedly defrauded Council of more than N$700 000, has been booked off for “acute stress” until the end of February.Yesterday, it emerged that she is the only staff member who can prepare the municipal staff payroll.A well-placed source told The Namibian that the majority of councillors had proposed that a private person who could operate the system be called in to salvage the situation.However some employees felt that workers’ salaries should be kept confidential, and poured cold water on the proposal.It was then agreed that they should wait for Coleman, who was in Windhoek and was travelling back to Keetmanshoop yesterday, and that she should come in and process the workers’ salaries.It is expected that the workers will now get their salaries today or tomorrow.