Something Is Seriously Amiss

An Open Letter To President Pohamba ALLOW me some space in your esteemed paper for some serious issues that I would like to raise in an open letter to the President of the Republic of Namibia, His Excellency Hifikepunye Pohamba.

Having been the Personal Assistant to the former Information Minister, Ben Amathila, I would like to air some concerns, if only to speak on behalf of those who do not or cannot speak for themselves. In my opinion, there are some serious aspects of the administration of Government and its parastatals that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency.I think that for the past fifteen years serious wrongs have been committed, of which I too was a victim.I am sure that I am not the only one, but alas, I can only speak for myself and for that matter only for what I know.Documented proof is available which will have to be produced to prove the contrary.Firstly, I would like to take the Public Service Commission, who “retired” me at the age of forty-one, to task.The matter is still sub judice and the Public Service Commission is aware of it, hopefully the final outcome will be on November 4 2005, as the judgement is scheduled for this date after two years of legal wrangling in the Labour Court with numerous delays.It is, however, my opinion that the Public Service Commission is just another political organ of Government that ultimately decides to close its eyes to any investigation that could or should be conducted when there is obviously something amiss.It would be interesting to find out what the statistics were for 2003 for people “retired” from the service as I was.Indeed perhaps for the past 15 years.The Public Service Commission, falling under the Office of the Prime Minister, is supposedly there to protect the interests of the Public Servants, but what has it done to evaluate the performance of useless and corrupt public servants, or doesn’t it have any role to play in this regard, are they only there to pass the buck to evasive Permanent Secretaries? Why is the Public Service Commission still allowing Personnel Offices and Permanent Secretaries to use pre-independence staff codes and Cabinet Memorandums written in 1994 concerning the Rationalisation of the Public Service to “retire” people? In any case, Article 1 of the Income Tax Act clearly states that you shall not retire anyone before the age of 55.To make a long story short, and I shall provide documentation for anyone who wishes to see it, I was initially to be “retired” on a pension, which was supposed to be only one tenth of my salary! Then, surprise! I was given three choices by the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF), which looked a bit better and would at least settle my housing loan.The previously proposed “pension” did not even cover the bond repayment and Medical Aid contribution.Then after the buck was passed to the Ministry who was supposedly at fault for not paying over the excess to the GIPF, which was the cause of a delay in the payout of my pension transfer, the Ministry paid out the excess, and it was done because I followed the transfer from its “delay” at the Ministry of Finance to the GIPF.Alas, the GIPF informed me in writing in a letter dated March 15 2004 that I would only receive a pension, this letter was signed by none other than the CEO of the GIPF, Mr Primus Hango.One week later, my legal representatives and I were informed by Ms Milka Mungunda of the GIPF, at a meeting at the GIPF verbally, that I would only be entitled to one third of my pension and a monthly payout.From the one week to the next, the offer had changed from no payout, to one-third payout.This amount was paid out without my permission into my bank account.When my legal representatives asked them to reverse the payment, since the matter had not been settled, the GIPF refused.To date I have not received the balance.The fact of the matter is that the GIPF victimises innocent people by not paying them what is due to them and I say that because these people do not have two pennies to rub together and are more concerned about survival than about legal action, which is costly and furthermore extremely long in duration, the GIPF never gets taken to court and therefore these injustices are simply never exposed.I think that the time has now come for these matters to be laid to rest.Once again, the GIPF is the custodian of Pubic Funds, for that matter the pensions of public servants, now I hear that an association is to be formed for pensioners or such like.I am sorry, this is pure window dressing of the concerns at hand.Who does the GIPF think it’s fooling? Public Servants should be concerned about their pensions.Right now there are many who are fully entitled to Government pensions who are not receiving their pensions at all on a monthly basis.Why is this so? Where is the money? Is this another gravy train for the skewed “black empowerment” that is taking place in this country? It certainly seems so! I have a copy of the latest GIPF Rules available for anyone who would like it; they are not being followed when it comes to investment criteria.Some food for thought – who was the owner of the Nando’s franchise, was this person really disadvantaged? Why are the trade unions so quiet? Look at the board members of the GIPF and their connections (conflict of interests).The Namibian people are being betrayed at the highest levels in Government.Greed overshadows all else! While the money “invested” could have been invested in the Social Security of our people, of which the GIPF has plenty, and the pensions of our elders could have been improved with all the money that has been siphoned off and lost into individual pockets in the name of “black empowerment”, some people seem to be living charmed lives! Why is Mr Tjihumino, Chair of the GIPF Board, suspended by the Ministry of Finance while some of the investments took place before his tenure? Justice delayed is justice denied.Your Excellency, I honour you as President and appeal to you and challenge you to launch a full investigation into the workings of the GIPF to ensure that people regain confidence in this institution.Please order a full audit by independent auditors and at least ensure that the monthly pensions that are in arrears are paid out to their rightful owners.Let those guilty of inappropriate actions be taken to task by the law courts and punished for their crimes against the people of Namibia while retaining the dignity of your office.Many are afraid to speak, because they fear losing the little that they are entitled to.They know who has the upper hand and are afraid to speak out against this hand that provides only crumbs to them.It is a matter of survival and the GIPF owes them many explanations and a lot of money.The CEO is aware of this, as are many others.With great respect for the Office of The President Ronel Grove WindhoekIn my opinion, there are some serious aspects of the administration of Government and its parastatals that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency.I think that for the past fifteen years serious wrongs have been committed, of which I too was a victim.I am sure that I am not the only one, but alas, I can only speak for myself and for that matter only for what I know.Documented proof is available which will have to be produced to prove the contrary.Firstly, I would like to take the Public Service Commission, who “retired” me at the age of forty-one, to task.The matter is still sub judice and the Public Service Commission is aware of it, hopefully the final outcome will be on November 4 2005, as the judgement is scheduled for this date after two years of legal wrangling in the Labour Court with numerous delays.It is, however, my opinion that the Public Service Commission is just another political organ of Government that ultimately decides to close its eyes to any investigation that could or should be conducted when there is obviously something amiss.It would be interesting to find out what the statistics were for 2003 for people “retired” from the service as I was.Indeed perhaps for the past 15 years.The Public Service Commission, fallin
g under the Office of the Prime Minister, is supposedly there to protect the interests of the Public Servants, but what has it done to evaluate the performance of useless and corrupt public servants, or doesn’t it have any role to play in this regard, are they only there to pass the buck to evasive Permanent Secretaries? Why is the Public Service Commission still allowing Personnel Offices and Permanent Secretaries to use pre-independence staff codes and Cabinet Memorandums written in 1994 concerning the Rationalisation of the Public Service to “retire” people? In any case, Article 1 of the Income Tax Act clearly states that you shall not retire anyone before the age of 55.To make a long story short, and I shall provide documentation for anyone who wishes to see it, I was initially to be “retired” on a pension, which was supposed to be only one tenth of my salary! Then, surprise! I was given three choices by the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF), which looked a bit better and would at least settle my housing loan.The previously proposed “pension” did not even cover the bond repayment and Medical Aid contribution.Then after the buck was passed to the Ministry who was supposedly at fault for not paying over the excess to the GIPF, which was the cause of a delay in the payout of my pension transfer, the Ministry paid out the excess, and it was done because I followed the transfer from its “delay” at the Ministry of Finance to the GIPF.Alas, the GIPF informed me in writing in a letter dated March 15 2004 that I would only receive a pension, this letter was signed by none other than the CEO of the GIPF, Mr Primus Hango.One week later, my legal representatives and I were informed by Ms Milka Mungunda of the GIPF, at a meeting at the GIPF verbally, that I would only be entitled to one third of my pension and a monthly payout.From the one week to the next, the offer had changed from no payout, to one-third payout.This amount was paid out without my permission into my bank account.When my legal representatives asked them to reverse the payment, since the matter had not been settled, the GIPF refused.To date I have not received the balance.The fact of the matter is that the GIPF victimises innocent people by not paying them what is due to them and I say that because these people do not have two pennies to rub together and are more concerned about survival than about legal action, which is costly and furthermore extremely long in duration, the GIPF never gets taken to court and therefore these injustices are simply never exposed.I think that the time has now come for these matters to be laid to rest.Once again, the GIPF is the custodian of Pubic Funds, for that matter the pensions of public servants, now I hear that an association is to be formed for pensioners or such like.I am sorry, this is pure window dressing of the concerns at hand.Who does the GIPF think it’s fooling? Public Servants should be concerned about their pensions.Right now there are many who are fully entitled to Government pensions who are not receiving their pensions at all on a monthly basis.Why is this so? Where is the money? Is this another gravy train for the skewed “black empowerment” that is taking place in this country? It certainly seems so! I have a copy of the latest GIPF Rules available for anyone who would like it; they are not being followed when it comes to investment criteria.Some food for thought – who was the owner of the Nando’s franchise, was this person really disadvantaged? Why are the trade unions so quiet? Look at the board members of the GIPF and their connections (conflict of interests).The Namibian people are being betrayed at the highest levels in Government.Greed overshadows all else! While the money “invested” could have been invested in the Social Security of our people, of which the GIPF has plenty, and the pensions of our elders could have been improved with all the money that has been siphoned off and lost into individual pockets in the name of “black empowerment”, some people seem to be living charmed lives! Why is Mr Tjihumino, Chair of the GIPF Board, suspended by the Ministry of Finance while some of the investments took place before his tenure? Justice delayed is justice denied.Your Excellency, I honour you as President and appeal to you and challenge you to launch a full investigation into the workings of the GIPF to ensure that people regain confidence in this institution.Please order a full audit by independent auditors and at least ensure that the monthly pensions that are in arrears are paid out to their rightful owners.Let those guilty of inappropriate actions be taken to task by the law courts and punished for their crimes against the people of Namibia while retaining the dignity of your office.Many are afraid to speak, because they fear losing the little that they are entitled to.They know who has the upper hand and are afraid to speak out against this hand that provides only crumbs to them.It is a matter of survival and the GIPF owes them many explanations and a lot of money.The CEO is aware of this, as are many others.With great respect for the Office of The President Ronel Grove Windhoek