The hearing for the case in which the Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund (Nsfaf) wants the court to compel its former payment officer to pay back more than N$500 000 he fraudulently transferred to a “student” will continue in July.
Yesterday, Windhoek High Court judge Boas Usiku set aside 24 to 28 July to hear the matter.
The hearing was placed on hold after former payments officer, Tomas Konghola, applied for absolution when Nsfaf presented its case against him last year. According to him, his former employer failed to present evidence that will sway the court to rule in his favour. However, the court dismissed his application last month citing that he indeed has a case to answer.
Usiku in his ruling, concluded that Nsfaf furnished the court with evidence to support its allegations that Konghola while employed by the fund, unlawfully and fraudulently facilitated payments in the amount of N$529 250 to Nelson Ndeitunga Sheefeni – who is not entitled to it.
Nsfaf wants the High Court to compel Konghola to pay back the entire N$529 250. The fund is claiming Konghola fraudulently made amendments to its payment requisition list by changing identification numbers, student numbers, and courses.
He further changed bank account numbers, replacing them with account numbers belonging to Sheefeni under the guise that he is a Nsfaf-funded student.
According to Nsfaf, Konghola was not authorised to make the payments and knew he was committing fraud when he accessed the interim payment system and made the changes. An investigation report compiled by the Anti-Corruption Commission indicates that payments of N$355 250 was made to Sheefeni’s First National Bank account between 21 October 2016 and 18 April 2019.
A second payment of N$87 000 was
made to Sheefeni’s Nedbank account on 6 December 2017. The last payment that Konghola made was on 25 October 2017 and was directed to Sheefeni’s Standard Bank account.
The report further indicates in order for Konghola to cover his tracks, once the payments have gone through, he would
delete Sheefeni’s banking details from the payment database.
Although Konghola was suspended in August 2020 in order for a disciplinary process to begin, such proceedings could not be concluded as he resigned in March 2021.
In court documents, Konghola has since denied the allegations against him.
He claims that it was not within his duties to give instructions to Nsfaf’s bank to process and make payments to any student.
He said he has no idea how he is being linked to the fraudulent activities by the ACC report. He claims his supervisor at the time, Margaret Hofeni, and senior management who were in charge of verification and authorisation, were never questioned. This he said is despite the ACC report indicating that several officers, managers, executives, and acting CEO Kennedy Kandume were interviewed.
According to Konghola, there is no evidence he was the only person who dealt with Sheefeni’s file. He added that during his employment at Nsfaf he never had any face-to-face interactions with students. –mamakali@nepc.com.na