Imms Namaseb faces bankruptcy over ‘misuse’ of donor money

THE Republic of Finland has set its sights on the personal assets of former Namibian soccer chief Imms Namaseb and his wife in an effort to recover over N$1,1 million in donor funding intended for Aids orphans that Namaseb is alleged to have misused.

Having already obtained a High Court judgement of N$1,179 million against Namaseb in February last year, the Republic of Finland last week increased the pressure on Namaseb by also asking the High Court to order the sequestration of the joint estate of Namaseb and his wife, Magdalena Namases.Namaseb tried to stave off being declared bankrupt, but in a judgement handed down on Friday, Judge Sylvester Mainga granted an order for the provisional sequestration of his and his wife’s estate as requested by the Republic of Finland.The provisional sequestration order will be in force until August 14 at this stage.The judgement against Namaseb resulted from funding of N$1 470 840 that the Embassy of Finland in Namibia granted to Multi Purpose Consultancy CC (MPC), a close corporation in which Namaseb holds half of the members’ interest, for a project supposed to empower Aids orphans, vulnerable children and households headed by women in Namibia.Namaseb, who is a former President of the Namibia Football Association, was also the project coordinator for the programme that the Finnish Embassy agreed to fund. The project was supposed to run over two years, from April 7 2005 to March 31 2007.In 2007, the Finnish Embassy asked auditing firm Ernst & Young to investigate the use of the funding that had been provided for the project to check if the money had been used for its intended purpose.In a report dated July 18 2007, Ernst & Young informed the embassy that only N$291 587 of the total of N$1 470 840 provided by the embassy was found to have been used for its intended purpose and could be supported by valid documentation.A further N$125 418 appeared to have been used for its intended purpose, but valid documentation to support this spending could not be found by the auditing firm, it was reported to the embassy.Namaseb is denying that the Finnish money was misused.After a default judgement in an amount of N$1,179 million was given against Namaseb early last year, he tried to have that judgement cancelled. Namaseb’s request for the rescission of the judgement was dismissed by High Court Judge Louis Muller in late July last year, though.Lawyers representing Namaseb then noted an appeal to the Supreme Court against the judgement in which the court refused his request to have the earlier judgement set aside. Until last week, the appeal was not taken any further.According to Namaseb, he discovered only on July 8, when he visited the offices of the Registrar of the High Court, that his lawyers had not pursued his appeal against the refusal to rescind the default judgement against him. Also according to Namaseb, he last had contact with his lawyers in August last year.’This means for a period of ten and a half months (Namaseb) took no interest, whatsoever, in the appeal his attorneys had to lodge,’ Judge Mainga said in the judgement delivered on Friday.’On (Namaseb’s) own version it is quite clear that he was grossly negligent in his approach to his appeal,’ the Judge also remarked. Given the history of how Namaseb approached the case against himself, it is unlikely that the Supreme Court would pardon his remissness if he asks that court to allow him to appeal against the judgement given against him, Judge Mainga added.Namaseb appeared in person with the hearing of the application for his and his wife’s sequestration on Monday last week. The Republic of Finland was represented by Phillip Barnard, instructed by Mike Böttger of the firm LorentzAngula Inc.