WINDHOEK – The board of directors of the Namibia Press Agency (Nampa), the state-owned news agency, pocketed around N$418 000 in fourteen sittings in 2016, the Minister of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) Stanley Simataa revealed last week.
Simataa revealed this when responding to Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) Member of Parliament Elma Dienda who wanted to know why the news agency had spent that much on its board members.
Nampa board had five members – its chairperson Rector Mutelo, its deputy chair Ernestine Tuneeko, Christiaan Maketo, Bryan Eiseb and Florence Auala (late).
Simataa said Mutelo pocketed N$119 586 calculating to about N$8 500 per sitting, Tuneeko N$89 007, Maketo N$78 976, Eiseb N$ 70 897 and Auala N$60 516 after 14 sittings.
Simataa said the board members commenced duty during the time when former Nampa CEO Nghindinwa Hamunime was preparing to go on retirement.
“This necessitated the board to initiate the process of hiring a new CEO. The number of meetings was therefore unusually high in the reporting years as a result of the tasks that the board members were expected to perform,” Simataa said.
Additionally, he said, two board members were residing outside the country and had to travel to Namibia to attend to these “important engagements”.
“Mr Mutelo is the spouse of Ambassador Anne Mutelo who is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Mr Mutelo at times had to travel from Malaysia to attend Nampa board meetings. Similarly, Auala was based in Cape Town and also flew in to Windhoek to attend Nampa board meetings at the expense of the news agency,” he said, adding that this contributed to the high expenditures.
“I however hasten to state that I have since engaged the chair (Mutelo) to schedule board meetings during the times when he is in Namibia to reduce expenditure,” he said.