LIH wants missing N$1,6m

ERONGO Governor Cleophas Mutjavikua is again at the centre of controversy over the dubious transfer of funds from the bank account of a joint venture in which the investment arm of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) holds a stake.

N$1,6 million has been drawn from the account without the knowledge of Labour Investment Holdings (LIH), which is NUNW’s business arm. LIH has now requested the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate the ‘arbitrary’ transfer from the bank account of its subsidiary company Gazania 128. Suspended LIH board member Mutjavikua is the managing director of Gazania 128 according to documents in possession of The Namibian.In a statement, LIH said Gazania 128 received a lucrative amount from this deal. The LIH has 51 per cent shareholding in Gazania 128, with the remaining 49 per cent held by Avant-Garde Investments CC. LIH said while it was still in negotiations with Avant-Garde on the manner in which to distribute the proceeds from its fishing rights, it emerged that a N$1 630 000 was ‘arbitrarily’ transferred to an unknown bank account, or accounts, from the Gazania 128 account at Standard Bank. LIH then met with Standard Bank to find out what had happened, but the bank was unable to release information of the transfer at the instruction of directors of Gazania, LIH said. The directors of Gazania 128 include Miino Gariseb, Florian Hartzenberg, and Kudakwashe Taruvinga. Gariseb presumably also has an interest in Avant-Garde. LIH recently announced that Gazania 128 had entered into a ‘super joint venture’ with other companies to clinch a deal with Erongo Marine Enterprises to sell their fishing quota at N$2 000 a metric ton. What LIH at the time did not divulge, was the internal to’ing and fro’ing surrounding this matter. The LIH board was reportedly unaware that it had a 51 per cent stake in Gazania 128, and neither was it aware that Mutjavikua was its managing director until November 2011. Mutjavikua denied this, saying the LIH board was fully aware of this. He also denied ever having been the managing director of Gazania, saying he served as interim chairperson of the company. Nevertheless, on February 14 an amount of N$3 950 000 was paid into the Gazania 129 account for fishing quota fees for 2012. Prince said on February 15 close to midnight, she received an e-mail from Gariseb in which he demanded that she should facilitate the immediate distribution of the close to N$4 million, asking her to ‘push and wrap up latest 08h45’ the next morning [February 16]. Prince at the time was the one authorising all payments made from the Gazania 128 account. She said she was concerned over the apparent rush to get the money transferred, particularly because there was no final shareholders’ agreement between LIH and Avant-Garde, an agreement that is still outstanding. Furthermore, she said, the ‘self-appointed’ Gazania 128 management was not representative of the shareholding in Gazania 128. On the morning of February 16, Gariseb is said to have phoned Prince to ‘sign off’ on the transfer at Standard Bank. According to Gariseb’s proposal to Prince, provision was to made for ‘board fees’ of N$480 000 and a further ‘management fees’ of N$1 080 000 to be paid to Avant-Garde alone, but deductible from Gazania 128’s income for tax purposes. It later emerged that Prince was removed as co-signatory from the Gazania 128 bank account for the transfer of N$1 630 000 into several unknown accounts. The LIH maintains that the transaction was not in the interest of the LIH as majority shareholder in Gazania 128, whose directors seemingly acted with the intent to receive direct or indirect gratification to the detriment of the entities they represent. Several documents pertaining to this matter reportedly disappeared from Prince’s desk at the LIH office. A case in this regard was lodged with the Police. In her affidavit Prince said it is not known if Mutjavikua had benefited from these payments, and asked the ACC to investigate whether he had used his position as director of Gazania 128 and board member of LIH to ‘unduly influence this distribution to ultimately benefit himself in, amongst others, the receipt of undue management fees to the detriment of LIH’. ‘From the manner in which monies were to be distributed as per the proposal received, it was clear that the directors of Gazania 128 had no intention to spend some of its income on these commitments,’ Prince said in the affidavit. When approached for comment, Gariseb said Prince was removed as signatory from the Gazania 128 account because she was not available for transfers to be made, which the directors had a right to do. Gariseb would not say where the money was transferred to, saying that the shareholders would have a meeting within the next number of days in which these matters would be discussed. Mutjavikua said Prince was aware of the split [the distribution of money], saying the LIH still had to claim its portion of the money. He said the ‘split’ did not make provision for retrospective management board fees, but for future fees, ‘of which I am not one’. ‘I am not aware of money transferred in lieu of management board fees and ACC should inspect that,’ said Mutjavikua. He said as chairperson he has also not received any complaints from the parties, a matter he said should be discussed at board level.Mutjavikua also denied a claim that Gazamia 128 used the name of LIH to secure the fishing rights. ‘LIH contributed nothing but they got 51 per cent and money for merely their involvement in the deal. Ordinary Namibians got fishing rights. Will one argue that if it was not for LIH then Avant-Garde would not qualify as Namibian to get the fishing rights?’ Mutjavikua asked.

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