SSC’s Green on red carpet today: no media allowed

THE Social Security Commission yesterday slapped down a suggestion that the media be allowed to attend a disciplinary hearing today of its suspended General Manager for Finance and Administration, Avril Green.

Green’s lawyer, Richard Metcalfe, yesterday sent a letter to the SSC’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, David Keendjele, to enquire whether he would object to members of the press being present at Green’s disciplinary hearing. In response, Keendjele told Metcalfe that the SSC “does not entertain the idea of holding disciplinary hearings of its staff in public, irrespective of the reasons for such a request”.Disciplinary hearings are an internal matter, he wrote.In the letter to the SSC, Metcalfe stated that Green “has received much adverse publicity” because of the disciplinary charges against him.He stated that the request to allow the media to attend Green’s hearing was made in light of the fact that the SSC is a public body, and that members of the media had indicated a desire to be present at the disciplinary inquiry.”The merits of the matter are already within the public domain and we see no prejudice to you or your client in the light thereof,” Metcalfe commented.Keendjele did not appear to agree.Lawyer Nate Ndauendapo is set to be the Chairman at the disciplinary hearing, which is scheduled to take place today and tomorrow.Norman Tjombe, the Director of the Legal Assistance Centre, will be presenting the SSC’s charges against Green and its evidence on these at the hearing.A source close to the matter said yesterday that the charges against Green all stem from the role that he played in the SSC’s decision to invest N$30 million through an inexperienced but politically well-connected asset management company, Avid Investment Corporation, in January.Avid failed to repay the N$30 million plus promised interest earnings of some N$1,48 million on the due date in late May.That prompted the SSC to obtain a court order for Avid’s liquidation in early July, followed by a Companies Act inquiry in the High Court in which revelations came to light that the SSC’s money had never been invested with a first-class bank as the SSC had thought.The inquiry also produced claims that former directors of Avid – including Swapo Party Youth League Secretary Paulus Kapia – had received large cash payments from a business associate of Avid’s Chief Executive Officer, the late Lazarus Kandara, on Kandara’s instructions shortly after the SSC had been persuaded to invest the money through Avid.Kapia’s role in the process in which Avid lobbied with the SSC to get the investment first came to light when Green made an affidavit in support of the SSC’s legal steps against Avid in an effort to recover the money.In his sworn statement he said that Avid applied “pressure from higher political authority”, together with claims that it was partly owned by the Swapo Party Youth League, to get the SSC to agree to invest money with it.Eventually, three top SSC managers – the then CEO, Tuli Hiveluah, Green, and the then Manager: Corporate Finance, Gideon Mulder, caved in and agreed to invest SSC money through Avid.Mulder was dismissed from the SSC in the wake of that decision.Hiveluah resigned from his post late last month, shortly before he was to face a disciplinary hearing about his role in the decision.Among the allegations Green faces today and tomorrow are charges that he was guilty of insubordination for having authorised the investment with Avid whereas the SSC board had decided in November last year that the SSC would no longer be using asset managers to make investments for it, and that he was guilty of a dereliction of duties for not having prevented the investment with Avid.In response, Keendjele told Metcalfe that the SSC “does not entertain the idea of holding disciplinary hearings of its staff in public, irrespective of the reasons for such a request”.Disciplinary hearings are an internal matter, he wrote.In the letter to the SSC, Metcalfe stated that Green “has received much adverse publicity” because of the disciplinary charges against him.He stated that the request to allow the media to attend Green’s hearing was made in light of the fact that the SSC is a public body, and that members of the media had indicated a desire to be present at the disciplinary inquiry.”The merits of the matter are already within the public domain and we see no prejudice to you or your client in the light thereof,” Metcalfe commented.Keendjele did not appear to agree.Lawyer Nate Ndauendapo is set to be the Chairman at the disciplinary hearing, which is scheduled to take place today and tomorrow.Norman Tjombe, the Director of the Legal Assistance Centre, will be presenting the SSC’s charges against Green and its evidence on these at the hearing.A source close to the matter said yesterday that the charges against Green all stem from the role that he played in the SSC’s decision to invest N$30 million through an inexperienced but politically well-connected asset management company, Avid Investment Corporation, in January.Avid failed to repay the N$30 million plus promised interest earnings of some N$1,48 million on the due date in late May.That prompted the SSC to obtain a court order for Avid’s liquidation in early July, followed by a Companies Act inquiry in the High Court in which revelations came to light that the SSC’s money had never been invested with a first-class bank as the SSC had thought.The inquiry also produced claims that former directors of Avid – including Swapo Party Youth League Secretary Paulus Kapia – had received large cash payments from a business associate of Avid’s Chief Executive Officer, the late Lazarus Kandara, on Kandara’s instructions shortly after the SSC had been persuaded to invest the money through Avid.Kapia’s role in the process in which Avid lobbied with the SSC to get the investment first came to light when Green made an affidavit in support of the SSC’s legal steps against Avid in an effort to recover the money.In his sworn statement he said that Avid applied “pressure from higher political authority”, together with claims that it was partly owned by the Swapo Party Youth League, to get the SSC to agree to invest money with it.Eventually, three top SSC managers – the then CEO, Tuli Hiveluah, Green, and the then Manager: Corporate Finance, Gideon Mulder, caved in and agreed to invest SSC money through Avid.Mulder was dismissed from the SSC in the wake of that decision.Hiveluah resigned from his post late last month, shortly before he was to face a disciplinary hearing about his role in the decision.Among the allegations Green faces today and tomorrow are charges that he was guilty of insubordination for having authorised the investment with Avid whereas the SSC board had decided in November last year that the SSC would no longer be using asset managers to make investments for it, and that he was guilty of a dereliction of duties for not having prevented the investment with Avid.