Suspended Walvis Bay municipal bosses reinstated

Cindy Van Wyk
LEADREA MOUERS



WALVIS BAY

Four Walvis Bay municipal officials who were suspended are set to return to work. They were suspended pending an investigation into money that allegedly went missing from the Massive Urban Land Servicing Project.

General manager of community and economic development Augistino Victor, manager for property and housing Jack Manale and property clerk Constance Summers received letters informing them to report for duty on 1 September.

The suspension of Muronga Haingura, who had been serving as CEO since 2011, has also been lifted, although he may not return as his contract - which ends in November -was not renewed by the council.

Mayor Trevino Forbes confirmed the reinstatement of the suspended officials and said the audit report would be made available next week.

ACC raid

The officials were suspended after the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) raided their offices and seized computers and cellphones on 9 December 2020.

This was done to allow the investigation to continue unhindered.

The ACC investigated allegations of corruption in relation to unaccounted funds – to the tune of N$24 million – believed to belong to the mass housing project.

According to Knowledge Ipinge, former Walvis Bay Urban constituency councillor who first drew attention to the matter, N$230 million was paid by the Walvis Bay municipality to contractors who built houses for applicants with whom the municipality had signed deeds of sale.

However, N$24 million worth of plots were registered in homeowners’ names, but the money apparently never reached the municipality’s bank accounts and, as a result, did not reflect on the audited financial statements presented to the regional council.

Since September 2020, there has been no plausible answer as to where this money is.

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-23

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