Staff Reporter
THE Namibian Prime Minister has dismissed allegations that an 11-member task force appointed to undertake a review of Namibia’s public enterprise salary structures has been dissolved after someone “higher up” did not agree with whom was chosen.
The task force, chaired by Professor Joseph Diecho, was announced to serve from 1 July to 30 September to assist the Public Service Commission with reviewing salary structures across public enterprises, with a particular focus on board remuneration and executive recruitment.
The Prime Minister responded to questions posed by McHenry Venaani of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), who demanded that the Prime Minister explain to the country how Ngurare’s Government appoints a commission that needs to review the salaries of CEOs at SOEs, appoint and nominate a chairman and vice-chair, and then, a fortnight later, this body is defunct.
“These people, some of them had to take leave from what they are doing. The reason they were removed is that the authority ahead of you was not happy with the name,” Venaani claimed.
Dr Ngurare, however, said that it is important that Parliament must not be curious about rumours.
“Just because someone says this to you, you take it as fact. You are closer to me; we could have tea for you to validate. You don’t have to build on whatever you heard and magnify it to make it a fact. Everybody involved, they know that there has been a process that they went through. We have taken a decision on what we must do, and that is what we will do. Let’s leave rumours for now. You are here sounding as factual. Apparently, someone was called? Who was called, and that someone above me disagreed, that is rumour-mongering. When these people were composed, you were not there. If there is an issue pertaining to this matter, just refer them to where they were; why bring it here to make it a rumour platform?” Dr Ngurare said.
Photo: NBC Digital News
