SWAKOPMUND – The embattled Namibian Institute of Mining and Technology (Nimt), which faces a financial crisis, could only manage to pay its employees 75 percent of their salaries on Friday last week.
Nimt could not pay its 60-strong workforce their January salaries on time, which were already due on January 25. However, workers yesterday notified New Era that they only received 75 percent of their salaries on Friday, and they were also told in another internal memorandum that the struggling institution was working towards paying their outstanding salaries.
The notice issued last week Friday indicates that Nimt was finally paid its financial allocation from the Namibian Training Authority (NTA); however, the funds from Namibian Student Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) is yet to be paid to the institution.
“The available funds are unfortunately not enough to pay the full January salaries, but we shall pay 75 percent of it,” said the notice signed by Nimt finance manager Mark Templin and the executive director of Nimt Eckhart Mueller.
The institution is said to have been struggling to scrape money together for the past five months to pay the salaries, and has been surviving from a once-off bailout from government and overdrafts since September last year. Concerned employees yesterday alleged that 20 Nimt employees are well over the retirement age (60), and letting them go would slightly ease the burden on the institution.
The Nimt staff blames the woes on a supposedly bloated management structure at the institute.
“Nimt can generate its own money and be self-sustainable. We do not need to be bailed out. We need restructuring, and those over 60 years should retire,” an employee explained to New Era.
Mueller, when contacted last week, told New Era that Nimt is indeed low on funds due in part to the fact that their subsidies are paid late.