The Omaheke Regional Council has been operating without a substantive chief regional officer for over two years following the suspension of Maria Vaendwanawa in December 2019.

Council spokesperson Tauno Iileka confirmed this, but refused to answer questions related to personnel, saying such questions should be answered by the council chairperson Ignatius Gariseb. 

Gariseb was unavailable for comment as his phone went answered on Wednesday and yesterday.

Opposition leaders yesterday put the blame on the delay of appointing a CRO at the doors of Swapo, saying that the party is delaying the appointment because it has not found a suitable candidate “who would cover their corrupt activities at the council”.

Swapo regional coordinator Ruth Kaukuata-Mbura yesterday questioned why Swapo should be blamed in a government administration matter being dealt with at the ministerial level.

“Why should Swapo be blamed for the non appointment of the CRO? This is craziness, all I know is that the position was advertised and how far they are with that I don’t know – it has nothing to do with Swapo,” said Kaukuata-Mbura.

Vaendwanawa was suspended after she was accused of insubordination, reckless and negligent handling of council funds, payment of consultants for work not performed as well as the dismissal without authorisation of senior control administrative officer, Elsie Kandjii. Her suspension was recommended by the Public Service Commission (PSC) chairperson Markus Kampungu, who said the allegations against the CRO are extremely serious and warranted a suspension. The allegations against Vaendwanawa were also linked to the findings by Auditor General Junias Kandjeke in his 2017 report on the accounts of the council.

A case in point is a consultancy contract worth N$4 million a year, given to a company called Integrated Global Business Solution
(IGBS).

The regional council contracted this company to provide consultancy services, despite having a fully-fledged finance department.

At the time, Otjinene constituency councillor Erwin Katjizeu claimed in his motion that this company, IGBS, was being overpaid by about N$140 000 per month.

The contract was signed in 2010 when the company started compiling the council’s financial statements. Director of planning Karukire Tjijenda has been acting as the council CRO since the suspension of Vaendwanawa in 2019.