Kakunawe Shinana
3 January 2008
ELECTRICITY Control Board (ECB) Chief Siseho Simasiku has hit back in a bid to clear his name after he was implicated as a key person responsible for causing delays in a wind-power project by allegedly demanding millions of dollars in commission before the project would be granted a power purchase agreement (PPA).
The 10 per cent commission he allegedly demanded amounted to N$210 million dollars, it was revealed in e-mail communications between some of the shareholders of the Namibia Industrial Mining Company (NIMC), which had applied for a PPA and secured US$300 million in investment to set up two 50-megawatt turbines for the generation of electricity.
When contacted for comment, Simasiku acknowledged that he knew of the project and that NIMC had applied for a PPA, but claimed he had not dealt with them directly but through a committee that was set up to handle PPA processing.
"I have never demanded any commission from those people, it's all lies and they should not involve me in their problems because I am not part of them.
All I did was advise NamPower to go ahead with the project because the services they would be providing are at a good price.
You people should not listen to non-entities because it is a waste of time," said Simasiku.
On November 27, Simasiku forwarded an e-mail to this reporter which was supposedly authored by Pooven Moodley, the majority shareholder in NIMC, and addressed to a Mr Mbuere at NamPower, who forwarded it to Simasiku.
The e-mail indicated that Moodley had apologised to Simasiku and the MD of NamPower, Paulinus Shilamba.
The e-mail reads: "My sincere apologies to Mr Simasiku and Mr Shilamba of NamPower for slandering their names in the newspaper and falsely accusing them of commission demands when I know it is untrue.
I have no proxy or agreement with NIMC and I have never placed my money with them."
However, when The Namibian contacted Moodley about the e-mail, he said he had not written it.
"I never wrote such an e-mail and I still stand by what I have told your paper, that e-mail address must be a fabrication and whoever did it is covering for Simasiku.
I have never before written an e-mail to Mbuere before and I know he is one of the main contacts of Simasiku at NamPower.
I have not even said anything slanderous about Shilamba," claimed Moodley.
"This guy is abusing his position and by doing so he cripples a viable project because of his greed," he added.
"How can a person demand such ridiculous amounts of money amounting to millions of dollars in a day while the country is looking for millions of dollars in investment," said another source close to project.
An IT specialist was asked to examine the e-mails and has confirmed that the e-mail address of the sender was in fact fabricated, or spoofed.
When confronted about the alleged fabricated e-mail address, all Simasiku could say was that he didn't know that it was fake, and that it was forwarded to him by his associates.
"I am not concerned with whether the e-mail is fake or not, all I know is that I will take legal actions against whoever is trying to tarnish my name," said Simasiku.
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