Liquid Fuel ‘a clean deal’

THE Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday gave one of Namibia’s most controversial BEE deals a clean bill of health.

But while the ACC may have closed its investigation into the awarding of a lucrative fuel supply contract to BEE outfit Namibia Liquid Fuel, some of the officials involved may not be entirely out of the woods yet. Approached for comment, ACC Director Paulus Noa confirmed that as far as the ACC was concerned they could not find anything prosecutable in terms of the Anti-Corruption Act when investigating the three-year multi-million dollar deal, which instantly made millionaires out of a number of politically well-connected Namibians.The deal, the biggest-ever of its kind in Namibia at the time, was widely criticised as a politically influenced decision that sucked much-needed revenue from Namcor (the Namibia Petroleum Corporation of Namibia) and handed it to a small group of top officials instead.TENDENCIES AND PROCEDURES NLF has effectively been under investigation since the beginning of 2006, shortly after President Hifikepunye Pohamba inaugurated the ACC as part of his stated policy to combat the rise of corruption in Namibia.The ACC’s finding comes more than a year after Noa said on June 23 that it was making “very good progress” in its probe into the NLF deal Yesterday, Noa confirmed details of a press release issued by the NLF.He said the ACC had found that Namcor had followed proper tender procedures, and that the tender had been correctly awarded to Namibia Liquid Fuel, a joint venture between some State House officials and politically connected individuals.These include the former Secretary to the President, Ndeutala Angolo, Director of Economic Affairs Andries Hungamo, former trade unionist Ranga Haikali and Special Assistant to the Justice Minister and Attorney General, lawyer Sackey Shanghala.Angolo now works in the Office of the Founding Father, former President Sam Nujoma.NLF also said that the ACC had found that there was no substance to allegations that political influence had been exerted in awarding the tender.”It was found that it is and was still not against the law for a public servant to engage in remunerative work outside the Public Service, provided permission thereof (sic) has been granted,” NLF’s press release said.”In this case such permission was granted and confirmed,” according to the NLF statement.Noa said that the then-Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab had approved such an application by Angolo, who had also applied on behalf of Hungamo, for permission to get involved in the NLF deal.Hungamo, Noa said, had reported directly to Angolo and therefore all rules in this case had been complied with.In April 2004, it was reported in the media that neither Angolo nor Hungamo had filed any written permission from their immediate superiors to serve as directors of NLF or its subsidiaries.At the time, their lawyer insisted that this was not a legal requirement.FAILURE TO COMPLY? In the case of Shanghala, no official permission for his getting involved in the NLF deal could be found anywhere on file, Noa said.A legal source indicated late yesterday that failure to do so amounted to misconduct in terms of the Public Service Act (Act 13 of 1995), and that technically Shanghala should be charged for failing to comply with Sections 17 and 25 of the Act.Shanghala could not be immediately reached for comment on his apparent failure to submit such written permission.Given the scope and demand on time of the NLF managers in respect of their operations – which involved supplying about 450 000 metric tons of fuel a year from Sasol to Namibia – some questions also arose as to whether these officials fully complied with the very strict and comprehensively circumscribed aspects of the Public Service Act.Section 17 (a) of the Act states that a public service member shall place “… the whole of his or her time at the disposal of Government”, while the Public Service Code of Conduct also outlaws any form of conflict of interest.All the officials involved have consistently denied that they have transgressed especially this latter rule.”We have wonderful laws and rules in this country, but the problem is that these are not being applied consistently and regularly to everyone,” a top Government legal source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday.According to NLF’s Haikali, they had conducted their own, independent internal investigation into the matter as part of their commitment to corporate governance and social responsibility.Their own findings were echoed by the formal findings of the ACC, he said.”Despite the findings, we feel that substantial damage was caused by the media reports and to us – that’s water under the bridge,” their statement, signed by Chairman Ranga Haikali, said.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist; 081 240 1587 Fact Box * Half of Namibia’s national fuel supply business was first nationalised in late 1999 – by Cabinet decree – only to be privatised again into the hands of a small group of people.* Namibia imports about 830-plus million litres of fuel a year.* Namibia Liquid Fuel earns about N$800 million in gross profits a year – of which more than half would have gone to the small group of the people involved with it.* The NLF deal was set up in the dying days of the Nujoma presidency; it is scheduled to run until September.* Lawyer Lucius Murororua, whose own BEE oil outfit, Namenco (Namibian Oil Corporation Pty Ltd), challenged the NLF deal in court in November 2004, said his company had first introduced the idea to former President Sam Nujoma in 2004.However, suddenly in mid-2004, Namibia Liquid Fuel emerged as the preferred companyApproached for comment, ACC Director Paulus Noa confirmed that as far as the ACC was concerned they could not find anything prosecutable in terms of the Anti-Corruption Act when investigating the three-year multi-million dollar deal, which instantly made millionaires out of a number of politically well-connected Namibians.The deal, the biggest-ever of its kind in Namibia at the time, was widely criticised as a politically influenced decision that sucked much-needed revenue from Namcor (the Namibia Petroleum Corporation of Namibia) and handed it to a small group of top officials instead. TENDENCIES AND PROCEDURES NLF has effectively been under investigation since the beginning of 2006, shortly after President Hifikepunye Pohamba inaugurated the ACC as part of his stated policy to combat the rise of corruption in Namibia.The ACC’s finding comes more than a year after Noa said on June 23 that it was making “very good progress” in its probe into the NLF deal Yesterday, Noa confirmed details of a press release issued by the NLF.He said the ACC had found that Namcor had followed proper tender procedures, and that the tender had been correctly awarded to Namibia Liquid Fuel, a joint venture between some State House officials and politically connected individuals.These include the former Secretary to the President, Ndeutala Angolo, Director of Economic Affairs Andries Hungamo, former trade unionist Ranga Haikali and Special Assistant to the Justice Minister and Attorney General, lawyer Sackey Shanghala.Angolo now works in the Office of the Founding Father, former President Sam Nujoma.NLF also said that the ACC had found that there was no substance to allegations that political influence had been exerted in awarding the tender.”It was found that it is and was still not against the law for a public servant to engage in remunerative work outside the Public Service, provided permission thereof (sic) has been granted,” NLF’s press release said.”In this case such permission was granted and confirmed,” according to the NLF statement. Noa said that the then-Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab had approved such an application by Angolo, who had also applied on behalf of Hungamo, for permission to get involved in the NLF deal.Hungamo, Noa said, had reported directly to Angolo and therefore all rules in this case had been complied with.In April 2004, it was reported in the media that neither Angolo nor Hungamo had filed any written permission from their immediate superiors to serve as directors of NLF or its subsidiaries.At the time, their lawyer insisted that this was not a legal requirement. FAILURE TO COMPLY? In the case of Shanghala, no official permission for his getting involved in the NLF deal could be found anywhere on file, Noa said.A legal source indicated late yesterday that failure to do so amounted to misconduct in terms of the Public Service Act (Act 13 of 1995), and that technically Shanghala should be charged for failing to comply with Sections 17 and 25 of the Act.Shanghala could not be immediately reached for comment on his apparent failure to submit such written permission.Given the scope and demand on time of the NLF managers in respect of their operations – which involved supplying about 450 000 metric tons of fuel a year from Sasol to Namibia – some questions also arose as to whether these officials fully complied with the very strict and comprehensively circumscribed aspects of the Public Service Act.Section 17 (a) of the Act states that a public service member shall place “… the whole of his or her time at the disposal of Government”, while the Public Service Code of Conduct also outlaws any form of conflict of interest.All the officials involved have consistently denied that they have transgressed especially this latter rule.”We have wonderful laws and rules in this country, but the problem is that these are not being applied consistently and regularly to everyone,” a top Government legal source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday.According to NLF’s Haikali, they had conducted their own, independent internal investigation into the matter as part of their commitment to corporate governance and social responsibility.Their own findings were echoed by the formal findings of the ACC, he said.”Despite the findings, we feel that substantial damage was caused by the media reports and to us – that’s water under the bridge,” their statement, signed by Chairman Ranga Haikali, said.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist; 081 240 1587 Fact Box * Half of Namibia’s national fuel supply business was first nationalised in late 1999 – by Cabinet decree – only to be privatised again into the hands of a small group of people.* Namibia imports about 830-plus million litres of fuel a year.* Namibia Liquid Fuel earns about N$800 million in gross profits a year – of which more than half would have gone to the small group of the people involved with it.* The NLF deal was set up in the dying days of the Nujoma presidency; it is scheduled to run until September.* Lawyer Lucius Murororua, whose own BEE oil outfit, Namenco (Namibian Oil Corporation Pty Ltd), challenged the NLF deal in court in November 2004, said his company had first introduced the idea to former President Sam Nujoma in 2004.However, suddenly in mid-2004, Namibia Liquid Fuel emerged as the preferred company