SSC manager suspended

THE Social Security Commission’s General Manager: Finance and Administration, Avril Green, was suspended from his post on Monday.

Green played a central role in a recent SSC investment that went off the rails, leaving the SSC N$30 million out of pocket for the past two months. It had invested that amount through an inexperienced but apparently politically well-connected company, Avid Investment Corporation.Avid was supposed to repay the investment, with interest, in late May.To date that has not been done.With Green’s suspension, only one of the three central SSC figures in the Avid investment, Chief Executive Officer Tuli Hiveluah, still remains untouched and in office.ON FULL PAY SSC Corporate Affairs Officer Rino Muranda confirmed yesterday that Green had been suspended, on full pay, from his post on Monday afternoon.Except for saying that an investigation was being launched at the SSC, he refused to reveal the grounds on which Green had been suspended.”I’m not at liberty to disclose that,” Muranda stated.It is understood, though, from other sources, that the SSC’s Commission – its version of a board of directors – decided to suspend Green because of his role in the SSC’s N$30 million investment with Avid.The fallout from the deal has been hitting Avid since early last week, when the SSC succeeded in getting a High Court order placing the company under provisional liquidation.An enquiry under the Companies Act into the troubled investment is now also looming over the company and its past and current directors.With Monday’s suspension, the fallout from the deal has hit a senior SSC official’s career, too, for at least the second time.Besides Green and Hiveluah, the SSC’s former Manager: Corporate Finance, Gideon Mulder, was directly involved in the N$30 million investment.The SSC dismissed Mulder with effect from May 20, but he is challenging that step.Green was Mulder’s superior at the SSC.He was also the SSC official who made an affidavit on which the SSC’s High Court application for the provisional liquidation of Avid was founded last week.REPEATED DEMANDS The development of the Avid investment, and how Avid has, despite repeated demands, failed to repay the N$30 million plus about N$1,47 million in interest since the four-month investment matured either on May 24 (according to the SSC) or on May 28 (according to Avid), are set out in some detail in Green’s affidavit.In it, Green explained the procedure at the SSC if surplus funds were available for investment.The Manager: Corporate Finance, who was Mulder at the time, would identify investment opportunities and then refer the matter to him for recommendation to Hiveluah, who would ultimately approve the investment, he said.Green related that on January 4 this year he attended a meeting with two Avid directors: the company’s then Managing Director, Inez /Gâses, and Paulus Kapia.Kapia is the Secretary of the Swapo Party Youth League, and since March 21, also the Deputy Minister of Works, Transport and Communication.At that meeting, Avid was introduced to him, Green stated.GENEROUS INTEREST A written proposal from the company in which the SSC was requested to place an investment of N$60 million with Avid for a six-month period was forwarded to the SSC on the same day.The Avid letter stated that the investment was to earn interest at a rate of 20,13 per cent a year in that time – a rather generous interest rate, which was something that the letter did not state.After further negotiations between Avid and Mulder, Avid forwarded a new proposal to the SSC, for a N$30 million investment to be placed with the company at an interest rate of 14,5 per cent, Green related.On January 21, Mulder presented a letter to Green for his signature, Green further stated.In that document, addressed to /Gâses and signed by both Mulder and Green, Avid was informed that its investment quotation for N$30 million to be invested for four months had been successful.Green claims in his affidavit that he had second thoughts about Avid’s reliability as an investment company after signing that letter.After making enquiries about the company’s profile, and being told that the Navachab gold mine had not been satisfied with the guarantee for a similar investment that Avid had made for the mine, he advised Mulder that the SSC should not go ahead with the transfer of the N$30 million, Green claims.He also advised Avid of this.Then, on January 24, a meeting took place between Green, Mulder, Hiveluah and Avid director Kapia, Green related.He explained that the SSC “was not happy with the fact that (Avid) could not furnish the (SSC) with a satisfactory guarantee for the N$30 million to be transferred, since the absence of any such guarantee made the Avid investment risky for the (SSC)”.POLITICAL PRESSURE The events since May 28, when Avid has been unable to repay the money despite having claimed to have secured such a guarantee, may have proved Green’s claimed misgivings to have been quite prophetic.Still, at the January 24 meeting, Avid – represented only by Kapia – “was applying pressure from higher political authority”, and it was pointed out to the SSC officials “that the major shareholder of (Avid) was the Swapo Party Youth League, which apparently holds 80% of the shares in (Avid)”, according to Green’s sworn statement.After that meeting, and after Mulder reported that he had been shown “adequate financial guarantee bonds” furnished by Avid, a decision was indeed taken to place the investment with Avid, Green stated.On January 27, Hiveluah and Mulder signed a document that is, however, dated January 21, Green also informed the High Court.That is a letter to the SSC’s bank, authorising the transfer of N$30 million to Avid.It appears that someone may have anticipated that authorisation of the transfer of the welfare millions.An excerpt from a bank account statement of the SSC shows that the N$30 million had been transferred the previous day, January 26, already.It had invested that amount through an inexperienced but apparently politically well-connected company, Avid Investment Corporation.Avid was supposed to repay the investment, with interest, in late May.To date that has not been done.With Green’s suspension, only one of the three central SSC figures in the Avid investment, Chief Executive Officer Tuli Hiveluah, still remains untouched and in office.ON FULL PAY SSC Corporate Affairs Officer Rino Muranda confirmed yesterday that Green had been suspended, on full pay, from his post on Monday afternoon.Except for saying that an investigation was being launched at the SSC, he refused to reveal the grounds on which Green had been suspended.”I’m not at liberty to disclose that,” Muranda stated.It is understood, though, from other sources, that the SSC’s Commission – its version of a board of directors – decided to suspend Green because of his role in the SSC’s N$30 million investment with Avid.The fallout from the deal has been hitting Avid since early last week, when the SSC succeeded in getting a High Court order placing the company under provisional liquidation.An enquiry under the Companies Act into the troubled investment is now also looming over the company and its past and current directors.With Monday’s suspension, the fallout from the deal has hit a senior SSC official’s career, too, for at least the second time. Besides Green and Hiveluah, the SSC’s former Manager: Corporate Finance, Gideon Mulder, was directly involved in the N$30 million investment.The SSC dismissed Mulder with effect from May 20, but he is challenging that step.Green was Mulder’s superior at the SSC.He was also the SSC official who made an affidavit on which the SSC’s High Court application for the provisional liquidation of Avid was founded last week.REPEATED DEMANDS The development of the Avid investment, and how Avid has, despite repeated demands, failed to repay the N$30 million plus about N$1,47 million in interest since the four-month investment matured either on May 24 (according to the SSC) or on May 28 (according to Avid), are set out in some detail in Green’s affidavit.In it
, Green explained the procedure at the SSC if surplus funds were available for investment.The Manager: Corporate Finance, who was Mulder at the time, would identify investment opportunities and then refer the matter to him for recommendation to Hiveluah, who would ultimately approve the investment, he said.Green related that on January 4 this year he attended a meeting with two Avid directors: the company’s then Managing Director, Inez /Gâses, and Paulus Kapia.Kapia is the Secretary of the Swapo Party Youth League, and since March 21, also the Deputy Minister of Works, Transport and Communication.At that meeting, Avid was introduced to him, Green stated. GENEROUS INTEREST A written proposal from the company in which the SSC was requested to place an investment of N$60 million with Avid for a six-month period was forwarded to the SSC on the same day.The Avid letter stated that the investment was to earn interest at a rate of 20,13 per cent a year in that time – a rather generous interest rate, which was something that the letter did not state.After further negotiations between Avid and Mulder, Avid forwarded a new proposal to the SSC, for a N$30 million investment to be placed with the company at an interest rate of 14,5 per cent, Green related.On January 21, Mulder presented a letter to Green for his signature, Green further stated.In that document, addressed to /Gâses and signed by both Mulder and Green, Avid was informed that its investment quotation for N$30 million to be invested for four months had been successful.Green claims in his affidavit that he had second thoughts about Avid’s reliability as an investment company after signing that letter.After making enquiries about the company’s profile, and being told that the Navachab gold mine had not been satisfied with the guarantee for a similar investment that Avid had made for the mine, he advised Mulder that the SSC should not go ahead with the transfer of the N$30 million, Green claims.He also advised Avid of this.Then, on January 24, a meeting took place between Green, Mulder, Hiveluah and Avid director Kapia, Green related.He explained that the SSC “was not happy with the fact that (Avid) could not furnish the (SSC) with a satisfactory guarantee for the N$30 million to be transferred, since the absence of any such guarantee made the Avid investment risky for the (SSC)”.POLITICAL PRESSURE The events since May 28, when Avid has been unable to repay the money despite having claimed to have secured such a guarantee, may have proved Green’s claimed misgivings to have been quite prophetic.Still, at the January 24 meeting, Avid – represented only by Kapia – “was applying pressure from higher political authority”, and it was pointed out to the SSC officials “that the major shareholder of (Avid) was the Swapo Party Youth League, which apparently holds 80% of the shares in (Avid)”, according to Green’s sworn statement.After that meeting, and after Mulder reported that he had been shown “adequate financial guarantee bonds” furnished by Avid, a decision was indeed taken to place the investment with Avid, Green stated.On January 27, Hiveluah and Mulder signed a document that is, however, dated January 21, Green also informed the High Court.That is a letter to the SSC’s bank, authorising the transfer of N$30 million to Avid.It appears that someone may have anticipated that authorisation of the transfer of the welfare millions.An excerpt from a bank account statement of the SSC shows that the N$30 million had been transferred the previous day, January 26, already.