Public servants angered by GIPF board sitting fees

PUBLIC Servants’ Committee (PSC) chairperson, Adeline Black, yesterday blamed Prime Minister Nahas Angula as one of the appointing agents for not controlling the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) board members.

Renewed media reports on the exorbitant GIPF board sitting fees – allegedly ranging from N$50 000 to N$90 000 per month – have raised the hackles of public servants who will meet in due course to discuss this matter, and to plot the way forward on demands made by the PSC to get access to the findings of the latest probe into the loan repayment defrauding of more than N$660 million which include high-ranking government and political figures. Total board sitting fees for the last financial year were N$1,8 million. For 2001 this amount was N$714 000, N$1,3 million for 2007, N$1,4 million for 2008, and N$943 000 for 2009. ‘Government is failing us. What is happening is very wrong; we are running out of patience,’ Black said. In fact, said Black, board members are being paid more than members who contribute to the fund. PM Angula said he cannot be blamed because he has only appointed three members to the board. On the new board, he has appointed board chairperson Mandy Samson, Mihe Gaomab II, and Unam lecturer Kandali Nuungwedha. Other board members are Monica Hummel, Hubert Mootseng, Sarafina Kandere, Rudolph Kamberika, Siemy Shidete. Black said this is no excuse since the Prime Minister’s nominated candidate, Samson, is the chairperson of the board. ‘The public servants have more representatives on the board than that,’ countered Angula yesterday. ‘They should approach the unions on the board that are responsible to them irrespective of whether or not they are members of these unions.’ The GIPF yesterday said it is in the process of responding to questions put to it in a holistic way, stressing that it remains committed to values of transparency and accountability. Chairperson of the GIPF board, Mandy Samson, in her response to other media denied the allegation that board members have earned exorbitant amounts, saying only in isolated cases have board members earned up to N$50 000, which depended on the business dealt with. She also strongly denied an allegation that board members were seen at the GIPF for extended hours during the day at the GIPF head office.Samson did, however, acknowledge that there are on average 54 meetings annually. Her explanation is that there is one board meeting and one board committee meeting per week. Each board member sits on each of the five board committees. Prime Minister Angula said while he does not condone the high board sitting fees, he said the GIPF is a very big fund worth about N$54 billion, bigger than the national budget for the 2012/13 financial year which was N$43 billion. He thus argued that if Cabinet sits on a fortnightly basis to govern the country, it stands to reason that the GIPF board which oversees a fund bigger than the national budget, should sit more often. He, however, could not say how GIPF board fees have been worked out. The board fees of other parastatals are being governed by law, but the GIPF is not a parastatal, but a private entity. The PSC has written to the Public Service Commission to call for the urgent reform of the rules of the pension fund. Among the things it wants is for board members to receive a fixed allowance, instead of being paid on an hourly basis at every sitting. As things now stand, said Black, no-one supervises the board. ‘It is as if board members are given a blank cheque,’ she said.