EDITORIAL: Reining in rogue officials

The Grootfontein municipality&#039;s tough position to withhold the CEO&#039;s salary due to his alleged attempts to avoid appearing before a disciplinary tribunal should serve as a model for state institutions moving forward.While it is true that everyone must be given the benefit of the doubt until their guilt is established through a fair and impartial process, it has also become customary for state and parastatal employees to purposefully sidestep these procedures in order to pocket free money.There has to be a defined timeframe within which disciplinary processes have to be completed. But to continue paying the salaries of suspended officials for lengthy periods is in itself criminal and amounts to an abuse of the state’s scarce resources.Hilya Nghiwete, CEO of the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF), received N$4 million in salary while on suspension for two years, serving as a prime example of such wasteful spending. Four million without lifting a finger.The NSFAF board charged that Nghiwete used every trick in the book to duck the disciplinary hearing – for a solid two years. Only when the board axed her, without a hearing, did she see the urgency of the matter and dragged her employers to court.Merits and demerits of these hearings aside, there is absolutely no reason why anyone should continue getting paid for work they have not done and for extended periods, especially when such officials are the ones deliberately avoiding proceedings against them.

EDITORIAL: Reining in rogue officials

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-03

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EDITORIAL: Reining in rogue officials

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-03

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