Farmers on Hunt for Missing Funds

Home Archived Farmers on Hunt for Missing Funds

By Charles Tjatindi

Windhoek

Aminuis farmers and members of the public convened an urgent meeting last Wednesday to discuss the alleged mismanagement of the local Aminuis Farmers Association (AFA)’s funds.

The meeting became necessary after it was found that the financial reports of the previous managing committee of the AFA showed some irregularities.

Speaking to New Era, the Regional Councillor for the Aminuis Constituency Erwin Uanguta said when a new leadership was elected at the last AFA congress, the previous leadership could not justify certain expenses incurred during their reign.

“There were some things that were not clear in their reports. We cannot say if it is fraud at this stage, but some things just didn’t make sense,” said Uanguta.

Among the figures that were not accounted for was the amount of money the association earned from one of its biggest revenue sources – the auctioning of livestock. The previous management of the farmers’ body reportedly pleaded for more time as they apparently needed to assemble supporting documentation. They claimed they had not been coming together frequently prior to the congress.

Aminuis residents, most of whom are pensioners and farmers, instead asked that a case be registered with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) so that those found guilty could be brought to book.

The matter was however referred to the Namibia National Farmers Union (NNFU) for consultation. The farmers’ union in turn opted to enlist the help of unidentified auditors to clear the matter, which also failed to produce the necessary results, as the absence of proper documentation made it difficult for the auditors to carry out their work.

Although some receipts and supporting documents were found, it was still not enough to allow for a smooth auditing process.

The matter was then left in the hands of the office of the regional councillor and the new AFA leadership to resolve.

As in the case of a series of previous other meetings aimed at tackling the issue, last Wednesday’s meeting failed to resolve the matter. This has renewed the call by residents to take the matter to the ACC for investigation.

“What are they afraid of?” asked a farmer who spoke on condition of anonymity. “If they have nothing to hide, they should act and get the ACC involved.”

Uanguta noted that the matter would only warrant the ACC’s intervention once internal investigations are exhausted.

“We are aware of the frustration of farmers. We are not afraid to get the ACC involved, we just want to finish our own investigations first,” he said.

Uanguta could also not specify how much money is alleged to be missing, noting that this will only be determined once the financial reports reveal how much money was earned by the farmers’ body during the period concerned.

“It is not clear at this stage how much is missing. We do not even know how much was raised from auctions and so on,” he remarked.

Wednesday’s meeting resolved that the investigating committee be given three weeks to solve the matter, failure of which will result in a case being lodged with the ACC.

Meanwhile, New Era has learned from reliable sources that some farmers in the constituency have been benefiting from the farmers’ body’s funds through questionable means.

The farmers’ associations of Otjombinde and Epukiro are also said to have failed to account for money belonging to members and have no proper financial records on how the money was spent.