The City of Windhoek management Council refused to budge amidst mounting political pressure to employ Roads Authority boss Conrad Lutombi as CEO.
At a press conference yesterday, management council (MC) chairperson Ndeshihafela Larandja broke their silence on the protracted appointment of a substantive CEO.
They are of the view that the process was tempered with and cannot achieve an outcome that is beyond reproach.
It should, therefore, restart.
Larandja conceded that the role of a CEO for any entity can not be overemphasised.
Windhoek is not an exception.
“It is indeed a crucial position that is at the apex of every efficient functioning local authority council,” she said. But the MC has the last say as far as recommending a suitable candidate to council.
This has not happened.
“Firstly, MC is not convinced that the acting CEO [at the time George Mayumbelo] should have served in the shortlisting committee representing as the strategic executive of the department of human capital and corporate services while an acting strategic executive is appointed to serve in thesame portfolio,” Larandja said.
The MC furthermore said the requirements for the position were altered before the shortlisting took place.
Additional requirements were added in the process.
More so, the candidates who applied do not tally.
“The long list of applicants provided by the department of human capital and corporate services indicates 61 applicants, while 25 met the requirements, of which only five are shortlisted, whereas the submission under discussion indicates 68 candidates,” she said.
Lawyers representing Lutombi, who was the frontrunner to become Windhoek’s CEO, have written to city acting CEO O’Brien Hekandjo, demanding interview scorecards and explaining why they failed to inform the unsuccessful candidates about the interview outcome.
On Friday, Landless Peoples Movement leader Bernadus Swartbooi urged the MC to appoint a CEO, saying it is in the best interest of the city and its inhabitants.
He voiced his opposition to the appointment of Lutombi in the past.
“We studied the recruitment process. Every issue that the management committee raises as to be a problematic area in terms of the recruitment, shortlisting and eventual recommendation of the CEO, we have studied everything they have raised,” Swartbooi said.
“There is nothing materially fundamentally untoward – at least from the documents that we have at this juncture in the way in which the panel was constituted and the process was completed,” the politician said.
-emumbuu@nepc.com.na