Red card for SSC’s Green

THE Social Security Commission’s suspended General Manager: Finance and Administration, Avril Green, was yesterday found guilty on five of the six charges that he had faced at a disciplinary hearing over his role in last year’s Avid investment scandal.

Lawyer Nate Ndauendapo, who chaired Green’s disciplinary hearing, found Green guilty as charged on five of the six counts against him yesterday afternoon. The sixth count, Ndauendapo found, was in essence a duplication of one of the other charges.Green’s disciplinary hearing is set to continue on Friday, when Ndauendapo is set to hear evidence and arguments on the penalties that he will have to hand to Green on the disciplinary charges.Green is the last of the SSC’s three major role players in a decision to invest N$30 million with the now liquidated Avid Investment Corporation to be facing internal disciplinary action at the SSC.Gideon Mulder, who was the SSC’s Manager: Corporate Finance at the time of the investment deal, was dismissed from his position after a disciplinary hearing in May last year.He is still challenging that step in the Windhoek District Labour Court.Tuli Hiveluah, who was the Chief Executive Officer of the SSC at the time of the investment, was suspended from his post on August 10 last year.He was still set to face a disciplinary hearing when he resigned from his post on September 14.Green faced charges of gross negligence, gross insubordination, poor performance, two counts of dereliction of duties and function, and a charge of exceeding his powers and duties at his disciplinary hearing.He was found guilty on all of them except for one of the dereliction of duties counts, which Ndauendapo ruled to be overlapping the charge of poor performance of his duties.The thrust of the charges against Green was that he had failed to properly carry out his duties by first of all giving his approval to a decision to invest the N$30 million with Avid, and by later on, when he received information that cast serious doubts on Avid’s credentials as an investment handler, not taking proper steps to put a stop to the investment.Green was involved in some of the earliest meetings where directors of Avid first approached the SSC with a proposal that it should channel investments through the company.According to Green, one of the things he was told at these meetings was that the Swapo Party Youth League had shares in Avid and that “higher authority” had sent the directors to the SSC to solicit investments from it.On January 21 last year, Green and Mulder co-signed a letter to Avid in which they informed the company that the SSC had decided to invest N$30 million through Avid for a four-month period, at an annual interest rate of 14,65 per cent.Green also directed a letter to the SSC’s bankers to instruct them to transfer the money to Avid – but he ordered that this letter should not be sent after he made enquiries with the Navachab Gold Mine, which had previously invested money through Avid, and was told that the financial guarantee for that investment that Avid had given to the mine was not accepted by any bank in Namibia.However, despite having been told of Navachab’s difficulties with the guarantee, Green still went on to sign the letter that was sent to Avid to inform it that the N$30 million investment had been approved, Ndauendapo found in his ruling yesterday.”His actions did not amount to actions of someone who is trying to stop the deal,” Ndauendapo commented.Green furthermore failed to contact the South African bank where Avid had claimed it would be investing the money to double-check on the trustworthiness of Avid’s promise that the investment would earn interest at an unusually high rate of 14,65 per cent a year.After he had stopped the transfer of the money to Avid, Green travelled to Cape Town.In his absence, Mulder and Hiveluah then went ahead and authorised the transfer of the money to Avid on January 27 last year.The money was supposed to be repaid with interest at the end of May last year.Avid defaulted on that deal, the SSC took legal steps to have the company liquidated for its inability to repay that debt, and even now, more than nine months later, the SSC is still struggling to recoup the money.”Even after he found out from Navachab mine that there was something wrong with the guarantee, he still showed his interest and eagerness in investing with Avid,” Ndauendapo stated.”Had he been serious about stopping and cancelling the deal, no further negotiations would have taken place.The idea of the investment would not have been entertained any further.He was therefore negligent in his dealing with the Commission’s money, because even though he foresaw the possibility of danger, he reconciled himself to it.A reasonable man with Mr Green’s expertise would have taken steps to guard against such danger, which Mr Green failed to do.”Both Green and Mulder had been aware that the SSC’s board had decided on November 24 2004 that the SSC would no longer channel investments through asset managers, yet he went on to approve just such a deal barely two months later, Ndauendapo found.”The conduct of Mr Green when he approved the deal on the 21st of January 2005 was clearly in violation of clear provisions of the Social Security Commission Act, the Investment Policy and the Commission Resolution of 24 November 2004,” he ruled.Norman Tjombe has been pressing the charges against Green on the SSC’s behalf.Green is being represented by lawyers Rudi Cohrssen and Richard Metcalfe.The sixth count, Ndauendapo found, was in essence a duplication of one of the other charges.Green’s disciplinary hearing is set to continue on Friday, when Ndauendapo is set to hear evidence and arguments on the penalties that he will have to hand to Green on the disciplinary charges.Green is the last of the SSC’s three major role players in a decision to invest N$30 million with the now liquidated Avid Investment Corporation to be facing internal disciplinary action at the SSC.Gideon Mulder, who was the SSC’s Manager: Corporate Finance at the time of the investment deal, was dismissed from his position after a disciplinary hearing in May last year. He is still challenging that step in the Windhoek District Labour Court.Tuli Hiveluah, who was the Chief Executive Officer of the SSC at the time of the investment, was suspended from his post on August 10 last year.He was still set to face a disciplinary hearing when he resigned from his post on September 14.Green faced charges of gross negligence, gross insubordination, poor performance, two counts of dereliction of duties and function, and a charge of exceeding his powers and duties at his disciplinary hearing.He was found guilty on all of them except for one of the dereliction of duties counts, which Ndauendapo ruled to be overlapping the charge of poor performance of his duties.The thrust of the charges against Green was that he had failed to properly carry out his duties by first of all giving his approval to a decision to invest the N$30 million with Avid, and by later on, when he received information that cast serious doubts on Avid’s credentials as an investment handler, not taking proper steps to put a stop to the investment.Green was involved in some of the earliest meetings where directors of Avid first approached the SSC with a proposal that it should channel investments through the company.According to Green, one of the things he was told at these meetings was that the Swapo Party Youth League had shares in Avid and that “higher authority” had sent the directors to the SSC to solicit investments from it.On January 21 last year, Green and Mulder co-signed a letter to Avid in which they informed the company that the SSC had decided to invest N$30 million through Avid for a four-month period, at an annual interest rate of 14,65 per cent.Green also directed a letter to the SSC’s bankers to instruct them to transfer the money to Avid – but he ordered that this letter should not be sent after he made enquiries with the Navachab Gold Mine, which had previously invested money through Avid, and was told that the financial guarantee for that investment that Avid had given to the mine was not accepted by any bank in Namibia.However, despite having been told of Navachab’s difficulties with the guarantee, Green still went on to sign the letter that was sent to Avid to inform it that the N$30 million investment had been approved, Ndauendapo found in his ruling yesterday.”His actions did not amount to actions of someone who is trying to stop the deal,” Ndauendapo commented.Green furthermore failed to contact the South African bank where Avid had claimed it would be investing the money to double-check on the trustworthiness of Avid’s promise that the investment would earn interest at an unusually high rate of 14,65 per cent a year.After he had stopped the transfer of the money to Avid, Green travelled to Cape Town.In his absence, Mulder and Hiveluah then went ahead and authorised the transfer of the money to Avid on January 27 last year.The money was supposed to be repaid with interest at the end of May last year.Avid defaulted on that deal, the SSC took legal steps to have the company liquidated for its inability to repay that debt, and even now, more than nine months later, the SSC is still struggling to recoup the money.”Even after he found out from Navachab mine that there was something wrong with the guarantee, he still showed his interest and eagerness in investing with Avid,” Ndauendapo stated.”Had he been serious about stopping and cancelling the deal, no further negotiations would have taken place.The idea of the investment would not have been entertained any further.He was therefore negligent in his dealing with the Commission’s money, because even though he foresaw the possibility of danger, he reconciled himself to it.A reasonable man with Mr Green’s expertise would have taken steps to guard against such danger, which Mr Green failed to do.”Both Green and Mulder had been aware that the SSC’s board had decided on November 24 2004 that the SSC would no longer channel investments through asset managers, yet he went on to approve just such a deal barely two months later, Ndauendapo found.”The conduct of Mr Green when he approved the deal on the 21st of January 2005 was clearly in violation of clear provisions of the Social Security Commission Act, the Investment Policy and the Commission Resolution of 24 November 2004,” he ruled.Norman Tjombe has been pressing the charges against Green on the SSC’s behalf.Green is being represented by lawyers Rudi Cohrssen and Richard Metcalfe.