Heads to roll over rotten food

HEADS are expected to roll for allowing more than 6 000 kg of maize meal, destined for a food-for-work programme in the Karas Region, to rot in a warehouse.

The team that investigated the situation submitted its findings to the Karas Regional Council on Thursday. Karas Governor Dawid Boois said yesterday that the Regional Council would only make its conclusions public after an extraordinary meeting scheduled for tomorrow.But, according to a reliable source, the findings recommend that criminal charges be laid against some officials who were responsible for administering the food-for-work programme.Earlier, Karas Regional Council officials denied any involvement in the food-for-work programme, and claimed that Regional Rural Development Planner Absalom Naseb single-handedly ran the programme.However, an official in the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Manfred Minjingua, said at the time that the Regional Council should have administered the programme as part of the decentralisation process.It took the investigators almost six months to complete the probe, launched in March this year.Initially, the investigation was expected to be completed by the end of April.The 500 bags of spoilt maize meal, with an estimated value of N$20 000, were discovered in a warehouse when Food Security Secretariat officials visited the region in November last year to assess the programme.The maize meal was subsequently buried in hush-hush fashion seven km outside Keetmanshoop on the Aroab road at the end of February.It is believed the maize meal, along with canned fish and cooking oil destined for the food-for-work programme, was delivered in 2000.Health officials declared the canned fish and cooking oil fit for human consumption and it has been transferred to the drought-relief programme.The Namibian has learnt that the Food Security Secretariat, during its routine visit this year, again found a host of irregularities related to the food-for-work programme in the region.Karas Governor Dawid Boois said yesterday that the Regional Council would only make its conclusions public after an extraordinary meeting scheduled for tomorrow.But, according to a reliable source, the findings recommend that criminal charges be laid against some officials who were responsible for administering the food-for-work programme.Earlier, Karas Regional Council officials denied any involvement in the food-for-work programme, and claimed that Regional Rural Development Planner Absalom Naseb single-handedly ran the programme.However, an official in the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Manfred Minjingua, said at the time that the Regional Council should have administered the programme as part of the decentralisation process.It took the investigators almost six months to complete the probe, launched in March this year.Initially, the investigation was expected to be completed by the end of April.The 500 bags of spoilt maize meal, with an estimated value of N$20 000, were discovered in a warehouse when Food Security Secretariat officials visited the region in November last year to assess the programme.The maize meal was subsequently buried in hush-hush fashion seven km outside Keetmanshoop on the Aroab road at the end of February.It is believed the maize meal, along with canned fish and cooking oil destined for the food-for-work programme, was delivered in 2000.Health officials declared the canned fish and cooking oil fit for human consumption and it has been transferred to the drought-relief programme.The Namibian has learnt that the Food Security Secretariat, during its routine visit this year, again found a host of irregularities related to the food-for-work programme in the region.