Nalao calls for protection of CEOs

THE Namibian Association of Local Authority Officials (NALAO) has called for a moratorium on all suspensions of local authority CEOs and that no suspension should be made without the consent of the Minister of Regional and Local Government.

The association also urged Minister Jerry Ekandjo to call for a national indaba before this year’s regional and local authority elections to address the issue of local authority managers being ‘abused and harassed’. NALAO made the statement after it took issue with the suspension and subsequent resignation of Okahandja Town Chief Executive Officer Regina Alugodhi last week. Alugodhi is also NALAO’s president. NALAO condemned the Okahandja Management Committee for suspending Alugodhi without the knowledge of the full council. Alugodhi was suspended late last week because of alleged irregularities. She resigned after receiving the suspension letter. NALAO vice president Agostino Victor said in a statement that the association took strong exception to the ‘continued harassment and unwarranted suspension of local authority chief executive officers.’ The statement said Alugodhi was suspended on ‘frivolous grounds’.Victor expressed concern that NALAO’s appeal for ‘win-win cooperation’ between political and administrative officials in local authorities had fallen on deaf ears. He claimed that as a result, administrative officials continued to be ‘abused by some unscrupulous politicians who are only worried about their own bellies and do not carry the interest of the people at heart’. Victor called for measures to protect local authority managers so they could perform their functions professionally.

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