IPBF membership stops annual meeting

WINDHOEK – The annual general meeting (AGM) of the Indigenous People’s Business Forum (IPBF) that was supposed to take place on Friday in Windhoek was postponed.

Only 27 members out of about 500 turned up for the meeting and they felt that it was improper to hold the AGM without the audited financial report on the affairs of the organisation.Controversy rocked the organisation over the past few weeks, when four board members suspended two of their colleagues, Chrisch Siririka and Albin Ilovu, because of alleged financial irregularities at the forum’s office.The four – Helena Dora Tlhabanelo-Lebereki, Wendy Veii, Peter Nuugulu and Welcome Kazondunge – took the decision to suspend their colleagues during a special meeting that took place in Windhoek two weeks ago.Siririka and Ilovu are responsible for the day-to-day running of the office, while Siririka is also the forum’s national coordinator and ex-officio member of the board.However, Siririka claimed that the four board directors’ membership had lapsed and they thus could not suspend them.During the now suspended AGM, tempers flared when Siririka and Ilovu, who organised the meeting, could not provide an audited financial report.’Why should we go ahead with this annual meeting without a financial report on the affairs of the forum,’ asked one member.Another member interjected that the meeting was supposed to provide them with a report on the organisation’s achievements and challenges last year.’What did the forum do in the past years to help members who pay N$1 000 annual membership fees,’ asked another irate member.All that Siririka and Ilovu could say is that there is neither money to pay auditors to audit the forum’s financial documents, nor money to print the annual report.’It will cost the company N$45 000 to print the annual report and it will cost the company a fortune to pay auditors,’ said Siririka, but this reason did not convince the members present.They then passed an urgent resolution to be implemented within three months that the officials must get the financial reports audited.The meeting also resolved that new board members be elected at the forum’s next AGM set for October 25.Meanwhile, an IPBF seminar on funding and financing small and medium enterprises (SMEs), set for earlier this week, was also postponed to August.- Nampa