WINDHOEK – The New Era Publication Corporation (NEPC) board should speedily start with the process of identifying and recruiting a substantive CEO, chairperson for the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts Mike Kavekotora said yesterday.
Kavekotora said this when the NEPC management sat before the committee for a public hearing on the corporation’s affairs.
“I want you to carry the message to your superiors, the board need to move as quick as possible to appoint a substantive CEO, is very critical, we have seen in many institutions where your power to act are limited because of the fact you are an acting person,” Kavekotora told NEPC Acting CEO Benjamin Jakobs, who was accompanied to the hearing by the corporation’s finance manager Jonisiu Kambwale.
“Is not healthy to have someone acting in the position of a CEO for a long period of time and I am speaking from experience during my time at TransNamib,” said Kavekotora, who said he was highly impressed by the depth of Jacobs’ knowledge.
The corporation’s management was also asked to explain issues such as unexplained adjustments of close to N$14 million, bad debts amounting to N$10.2 million written off allegedly without approval, penalties paid overstated with N$4.3 million, Receiver of Revenue payable overstated with N$2.4 million and late submission of financial statements, among others.
Responding to the issue of late submission of financial statements, Jacobs said this was due to a heavy backlog but the issue has since been addressed successfully.
“We as management are very confident of timely submission of financial statements of 2019 financial year. It would be the last time that we shall submit financials late. The 2018 financial reports are pending with the Auditor General and 2019 financial reports are due to be approved by the board by the end of the month,” he said.
NEPC, a non-commercial state-owned entity, has battled financial challenges over the years.
Jacobs said: “The issue of insolvency is a big issue.”
“Unfortunately, we cannot sit here and blame our forefathers. As a new [management team] we have to take responsibilities for that, if you look at the bigger item, our main liability is our tax liability. For years in the past, the company was not paying its taxes,” he said.
“Right now, we are honouring our taxes,” he added.
“We have these great challenges and we are dealing with them as we are moving forward. We are really trying to do things according to the book and we are moving forward,” he said.