More dirt exposed in church finances

AT LEAST 20 church elders and pastors from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) have been expelled, suspended or are being investigated for the misuse of church funds.

This comes after a probe into one of the ELCRN’s accounts, the ‘Projects and Partnership Account’ unearthed widespread financial abuse and fraud by several pastors in the top leadership of the church amounting to more than N$1 million. The misuse of funds is reported to have taken place between 2007 and 2010.The probe findings, among other things, cite suspicious transactions, including bailing clergymen out of their personal financial woes, such as a scholarship allegedly paid for the son of Pastor Lesley Du Toit, who was a co-signatory to the account, or field work money being paid into the personal accounts of individuals rather than that of the church. Du Toit, who currently heads the Rehoboth congregation has since come forth with evidence to ‘clear his name’. Despite denying he was a co-signatory of the account when asked last week, he has since confessed that he was indeed a co-signatory of the account for a year, but maintains he never signed any cheques from it. When spoken to last week, Du Toit also said his daughter had borrowed an amount of N$6 000 from the church account but has since confirmed that the amount was N$10 000.’I was co-signatory of that account in the year 2007 when I was a Dean but I never signed any cheques from that account. I was then transferred to Rehoboth at the end of 2007 and I don’t know what happened with that account after that. With the consent of Pastor Mark Beukes, the N$10 000 was borrowed by my daughter who at the time worked as the church secretary and within three to four days of borrowing that money, she paid it all back in full. She borrowed the money to give to her brother, my son, who was studying at the University of Kwazulu Natal at the time. I don’t know why I should be implicated when I had no role to play in this whole thing,’ said Du Toit. He has since provided The Namibian with a copy of a bank transaction that proves his daughter did pay back the N$10 000 she borrowed in April 2010. Said Du Toit: ‘There is someone busy with me, someone who is trying to get rid of me. I’m here in this church for 31 years and they will not suspend me. I don’t know why they want to witch-hunt me. Why are people busy with me?’Du Toit further reveals that the problems within the leadership of the ELCRN is not only related to money issue, but include personal disagreements. ‘We have personal vendettas against each other as leaders in the church. We don’t talk to each other, it’s just back-stabbing and name calling. It seems when I talk to them about reconciliation, they don’t like this word’ he said’. Du Toit says he cannot remember how far back the problem started but points out that he foresees ‘a bleak future for the church’ if things continue like this. ‘All we do is pretend and go on without talking. We are afraid of each other and thus we don’t talk openly to each other. There must be a conference where we as a leadership all come together and humble ourselves, talk to each other openly and sort things out for the sake of our congregations,’ he said. The probe also implicates suspended Pastor Mark Beukes, who was in charge of the Projects and Partnership account, and in whose name and other Beukes’s names’ more than N$200 000 was made out in cash, cheques and electronic fund transfers with no invoices to prove what it was spent on. Beukes is also reported to have transferred from the same account a total of N$400 000 into the private account of expelled pastor Japhet Sem over a period of three months. As a result of their involvement, Beukes and Sem are currently the subjects of an Anti-Corruption Commission probe and a court case which is to be heard next year February. Sem has denied receiving N$400 000 saying that he only received a total of N$280 000. He further confessed that he is guilty to a certain degree but has said he cannot understand why only him and Beukes are facing the music when there are so many people involved. ‘The church leadership reported Beukes and I to the Anti-Corruption Commission and we are facing the music, but we are not the only ones who are guilty of having made use of money from that account. The church leadership also used money from that account. Bishop Zephania Kameeta himself used a total of N$1 million from that account to pay the salaries of church workers because until now, the church is facing a financial crisis. My question is, why is the church leadership also not being summoned and investigated? Why only me and Beukes?’ Sem asked.The investigation also unravelled an additional N$87 000 made out to the Mariental Deanery and circuit which is also not accounted for to date. A further N$50 00 was made out to the Otjiwarongo circuit under the leadership of Dean Paul /Goagoseb at the time. /Goagoseb has since been moved to oversee the Okakarara congregation and says he has accounted for all the funds given to him. ‘If someone has to ask me in 2012 for receipts for things that happened in 2009, must I now cook the receipts or what? If they say that I cannot account what the money was spent on, then they should prove that they gave me that money in the first place. I cannot just get money like that, surely there was a need for them to give me the money,’ he said.The ELCRN leadership said it was unable to comment last week because Bishop Zephania Kameeta was out of the country. ELCRN Finance Manager, Lennie de Vries on Friday said the church leadership’s response had been forwarded to their lawyer and it would be forwarded to The Namibian within this week.