NDC bosses score win with appeal

THE Managing Director of the Namibia Development Corporation, Abdool Aboobakar, and NDC Finance Manager Addis Faul have scored a partial win with their appeal against the findings of a disciplinary hearing where they faced charges over a huge NDC investment which appears to have disappeared into thin air – or down a great dark triangle.

Lawyer George Coleman, who has been tasked with deciding Aboobakar’s and Faul’s appeal against disciplinary hearing findings that found Aboobakar guilty on five disciplinary charges and Faul guilty on four, has decided that each of them should only have been found guilty on a single charge, the two senior NDC managers’ lawyer, Elias Shikongo, and labour consultant R.C. Raines informed the media yesterday.A three-man disciplinary panel of lawyers Lucius Murorua and Nate Ndauendapo and labour expert Johan van Rooyen earlier recommended that the NDC dismiss both Aboobakar and Faul as a result of the two men’s involvement in a decision to invest N$55 million in NDC funds, through the Offshore Development Corporation, also headed by Aboobakar, with a Botswana-registered company, Great Triangle Investments.The NDC’s money made up more than half of a total of N$100 million that the ODC invested with Great Triangle, which has failed to repay the investment as promised.At their disciplinary hearing, Aboobakar and Faul were both charged and found guilty on charges of gross negligence, poor performance, dereliction of duties, and exceeding their powers.Aboobakar was also found guilty on a fifth charge, “dereliction of duties and function”.In Coleman’s opinion the charges were improperly split, and by finding the two men guilty on several of the charges, the disciplinary panel made an error.It would instead have been fair to charge them with those charges as alternatives, or as one charge with a number of components, Coleman stated.Aboobakar and Faul are by no means off the hook, though.Coleman decided that the panel’s findings should be replaced by one single finding, reading: “Guilty of exceeding your powers by causing the Corporation to invest N$55 million (…), or through the ODC, without the approval or knowledge of the Board of the Corporation and as a result you caused the Corporation to suffer substantial financial losses and damage to its reputation and image.”Coleman suggested that the matter should be referred back to the original disciplinary panel to investigate and reconsider their recommended sanction, which was that both Aboobakar and Faul be dismissed.Coleman also had a further comment to offer on the matter, according to Shikongo and Raines.It is a comment that does not cast the state of corporate governance at the NDC in any favourable light.Stated Coleman: “The saga of the ill-fated investments by (Aboobakar and Faul) leaves an impression of highly questionable corporate governance from the Board level right through (Aboobakar’s and Faul’s) ranks.”Raines informed the media yesterday.A three-man disciplinary panel of lawyers Lucius Murorua and Nate Ndauendapo and labour expert Johan van Rooyen earlier recommended that the NDC dismiss both Aboobakar and Faul as a result of the two men’s involvement in a decision to invest N$55 million in NDC funds, through the Offshore Development Corporation, also headed by Aboobakar, with a Botswana-registered company, Great Triangle Investments.The NDC’s money made up more than half of a total of N$100 million that the ODC invested with Great Triangle, which has failed to repay the investment as promised.At their disciplinary hearing, Aboobakar and Faul were both charged and found guilty on charges of gross negligence, poor performance, dereliction of duties, and exceeding their powers.Aboobakar was also found guilty on a fifth charge, “dereliction of duties and function”.In Coleman’s opinion the charges were improperly split, and by finding the two men guilty on several of the charges, the disciplinary panel made an error.It would instead have been fair to charge them with those charges as alternatives, or as one charge with a number of components, Coleman stated.Aboobakar and Faul are by no means off the hook, though.Coleman decided that the panel’s findings should be replaced by one single finding, reading: “Guilty of exceeding your powers by causing the Corporation to invest N$55 million (…), or through the ODC, without the approval or knowledge of the Board of the Corporation and as a result you caused the Corporation to suffer substantial financial losses and damage to its reputation and image.”Coleman suggested that the matter should be referred back to the original disciplinary panel to investigate and reconsider their recommended sanction, which was that both Aboobakar and Faul be dismissed.Coleman also had a further comment to offer on the matter, according to Shikongo and Raines.It is a comment that does not cast the state of corporate governance at the NDC in any favourable light.Stated Coleman: “The saga of the ill-fated investments by (Aboobakar and Faul) leaves an impression of highly questionable corporate governance from the Board level right through (Aboobakar’s and Faul’s) ranks.”