Heads must roll

MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES WELCOME WHISTLE-BLOWER “FROM AMONG THE RANKS” WHO BLEW THE COVER ON CREDIT CARD MISUSE.

Floris Steenkamp

Three employees of the municipality of Walvis Bay, through namib times, called upon the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over the weekend to “dig deeper” behind the credit card fraud allegedly committed by Clr Samson Nghilumbwa.

Nghilumbwa is a town councillor and chairperson of Council’s management committee. He is accused of having abused his municipal credit card to the tune of N$83 000. Instead of using the credit card for strictly council business, Nghilumbwa instead allegedly withdrew cash at various automated teller machines at casinos and spent the money on alcohol purchases.

“How did the municipality’s financial system not picked up the abuse of this credit card for four months?”, asked one municipal employee over the weekend. Adding had the statements been perused and balanced regularly, the misspending would have been pick up almost immediately.

“We as municipality of Walvis Bay unfortunately have the culture to rather turn a blind eye on councillors or senior employees’ conduct”, said a second employee. She expressed her satisfaction with the fact that a whistle-blower from within the municipality notified the ACC of the alleged financial misconduct committed by Clr Nghilumbwa.

“It is high time that we as employees of the municipality of Walvis Bay stand up against the abuses taking place under our very eyes in our different departments.

We always rely on the media to uncover corruption and other wrongdoings, yet in so many councils across the country it is we as local authority employees who knows and have the information available to assist the Anti-Corruption Commission wherever possible”. The employee added if there is any truth in allegations Clr Nghilumbwa started to pay back the money, this poses even more of a serious situation. “That means someone knew but opted to sweep it under the carpet”.

This employee urged the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the matter and bare it to the bone. “It is my sincere belief that those who did not detect the financial irregularity in time, or possible have detected the problem but opted to stay quiet to prevent intimidation or any other sort of backlash should also be scrutinised and disciplined”, she said.