NTA ‘offers’ to pay off former boss

THE Namibia Training Authority has found itself in a predicament after the key evidence in the case against suspended chief executive Maria Nangolo-Rukoro was thrown out during disciplinary hearing proceedings.

As a result, the disciplinary hearing against the suspended CEO was allegedly called off and on again this week. This came after an Ernst Young forensic audit, which was the basis of Nangolo-Rukoro’s suspension, was declared invalid and thrown out.

Sources close to the hearing said that the forensic audit was first downgraded to a mere report before it was eventually thrown out as evidence in the case.

Initial media reports stated that the said forensic audit uncovered alleged irregularities in some of the institution’s tendering processes, administration of subsistence and travel allowances, credit cards, petty cash, as well as salary adjustments, between 2011and 2012. This resulted in Nangolo-Rukoro’s suspension in February last year.

Sources said that in the absence of the report, which formed the core of the NTA board’s decision to suspend the CEO, the board chairperson, Otto Shikongo, as the initiator of the process, had to take the stand and testify at the hearing.

It appears Shikongo is reluctant to testify, sources said.

The Namibian has learnt that the hearing, which has been on and off since last year, was put on hold on Monday when the NTA’s legal team attempted to offer Nangolo-Rukoro a settlement, allegedly on Shikongo’s instructions.

Talks broke down on Wednesday, when Nangolo-Rukoro allegedly refused to take the NTA’s offer to pay her out for the remainder of her term, which ends middle next year. This is allegedly the second time Nangolo-Rukoro was offered a settlement agreement by the NTA board which she refused.

Shikongo allegedly also said that he was not available for the next three weeks, suggesting that other witnesses be called to testify in the meantime. Shikongo’s detractors saw the move as a way to buy time since his term as director ends this month.

At the time of going to print, Nangolo-Rukoro and Shikongo did not respond to text messages and calls to their mobile phones and the NTA did also not respond to emailed questions about the status of the hearing.

Media reports at the time of the suspension stated that there was speculation within the NTA in 2012 of bad blood between Shikongo and Nangolo-Rukoro, which stemmed from the cancellation of a tender by Nangolo-Rukoro in which one of Shikongo’s companies had an interest.

The said tender was worth more than N$50 million and it was for the expansion and renovations to the Valombola Vocational Training Centre in Ongwediva. Nangolo-Rukoro’s decision to put on hold the awarding of said tender at the time was allegedly influenced by a declaration Shikongo made at a board meeting in August 2012 that he held interests in one of the companies that had tendered and was awarded the tender.

There is a rule within the organisation, which states that where there is a perceived conflict of interest, management must be informed of the situation promptly, which was apparently not what happened in Shikongo’s case.

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