Christof Maletsky
13 November 2008
LAWYERS representing suspended TransNamib CEO Titus Haimbili have requested more clarity on charges forwarded by the Board.
Haimbili has until today to reply to the six charges the Board made against him two weeks ago.
He told The Namibian yesterday that his lawyers have written to the Board to request an elaborated explanation on the charges before they respond.
Two weeks ago the Board said it had enough evidence to suggest that corruption and mismanagement were involved, and extended his suspension indefinitely.
"We will now wait and see what the Board's response will be.
We gave them the letter today," Haimbili said.
The main charge appears 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.
Haimbili was served with the charges after Ernst & Young conducted an investigation.
The company have not set a time limit, but a formal disciplinary hearing will be conducted once Haimbili answers to the charges.
When he approached the Labour Court in September to contest his suspension, 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 former General Manager for Engineering Matty 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.
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