Christof Maletsky
3 November 2008
TRANSNAMIB has extended indefinitely the suspension of its CEO, Titus Haimbili, claiming that it has enough evidence to suggest that corruption and mismanagement was involved.
The Board served Haimbili with six charges on Friday, giving him 14 days to admit or deny them.
"I am happy that they have finally presented me with the charges.
Without going into the merits and demerits of the case, I must say that they appear similar to the ones you people speculated about.
That makes me wonder why it took them so long to present me with the charges," Haimbili told The Namibian over the weekend.
The charges were dropped off at his home at noon on Friday, after the board failed make it to an earlier appointment with his lawyer.
TransNamib's Chief of Corporate Communication, Ailly Hangula-Paulino, said on Friday that the "allegations are prima facie (on face value) confirmed by the findings undertaken".
Ernst & Young conducted the investigation.
She said Haimbili was still on suspension until the proceedings were completed.
They have not set a time limit, but a formal disciplinary hearing will be conducted once Haimbili answers to the charges.
"The completion of the independent investigation marks an important milestone in our efforts to restore employees' and customers' as well as other stakeholders' confidence in TransNamib Holdings," said acting Chairperson Sara Naanda.
When Haimbili was suspended on August 14, The Namibian reported that he had been sent home over alleged irregular appointments.
The main issue appeared to be the appointment of the General Manager for Human Resources Albertus !Naruseb, whom some claimed had leapfrogged other interviewees for the job.
The allegation was that Haimbili appointed him because he was his wife's brother.
Haimbili denied the allegation.
!Naruseb was part of a group of five new key staff members Haimbili had appointed.
Others were the General Manager for Finance, the Company Legal Advisor, the General Manager for Marketing and the Chief of Corporate Communication.
With the TransNamib Board questioning Haimbili's powers to appoint, doubt was cast on the appointments of the other four staff members, including acting CEO Mike Kavekotora, who is the Marketing GM.
Sources claimed that Haimbili's decision not to extend the contract of Matty Hauuanga (General Manager Engineering) might have something to do with his suspension.
The Namibian was told that Hauuanga had been encouraged to reapply for the position after advertisements were placed to declare the post vacant.
His last working day, however, was on Friday after he refused to reapply for his job.
When he approached the Labour Court in September, Haimbili claimed that there were ulterior motives behind his suspension, as board chairperson Festus Lameck had also applied for the CEO position but did not get it; wanted to protect the interest of Hauuanga whose contract was about to expire; and also intended to stifle an investigation he had started into the purchase of locomotives from China.
"I had just instructed a delegation of management to revisit the purchase of Chinese locomotives.
The preliminary indications are that there are serious shortcomings with this transaction.
Matty Hauuanga was a key player in this transaction and may be implicated," Haimbili wrote in his affidavit.
The Namibian has it on good authority that Haimbili's investigation was about to reveal a cesspool of alleged corruption and kickbacks linked to the locomotive deal made by the previous TransNamib management.
Among the allegations was that electric appliances such as fridges, given by the Chinese companies as kickbacks, were smuggled into Namibia with the locomotives without official clearance at Walvis Bay harbour.
Also, the real value of the locomotives has apparently not been revealed, with some money allegedly changing hands without the company's knowledge.
In his affidavit, Haimbili said his conflict with Lameck started the minute Lameck took over as chairperson of the board.
He claimed that Lameck started by asking him why he had advertised Hauuanga's position and insisted that the recruitment panel be changed.
Lameck has since also been put on special leave while the case against Haimbili is handled by Naanda and two other board members.
One board member, Braam Cilliers, resigned recently claiming that he was too busy with other commitments.
However, The Namibian understands that Cilliers resigned because he did not want to get involved in TransNamib politics.
Haimbili's suspension was partly responsible for the strike at TransNamib which cost the parastatal around N$52 million.
Government gave them N$14 million and directed them to the Development Bank of Namibia which last week injected a further N$14,2 million into the transport parastatal after local banks stopped a credit facility because of Haimbili's suspension.
"I am looking forward to the only Christmas gift I have for myself, which is to prove my innocence and to restore my honour and dignity.
Through my lawyers, I will fight to the end.
I will go back to active employment with TransNamib and continue what I have started until I complete my five-year contract," Haimbili told The Namibian.
He said one of the conditions of his extended suspension is not to travel outside Windhoek without Naanda's approval.
"That is a unique stipulation.
It is as if I am a criminal under house arrest," he said.
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