NAMIBIA: Namfisa suspends CEO

BY: NANGULA SHEJAVALI

THE CEO of Namfisa, Rainer Ritter, has been suspended. The board of the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) announced his suspension yesterday, saying it was based on a draft report on investigations conducted by auditing firm Ernst & Young.


When approached, Ritter told The Namibian that he had no comment on his suspension or the investigation, and referred questions to Namfisa.

Exactly one month ago, the Namfisa board granted Ritter one month's leave for health reasons.

A week before Ritter was granted sick leave, a local weekly reported that he had been provided with 24-hour Police protection after he and his family's lives were placed at risk when he suspended two senior managers suspected of having alerted mainly Namibian-based, South African financial institutions of imminent investigations.

This was reportedly after Ritter had got wind of irregularities at Namfisa from 2006 onwards.

When Ritter went on leave, Namfisa spokesperson Ebben Kalondo confirmed that the company was the subject of two investigations conducted by Ernst & Young and a Police investigation following a break-in at the Authority's offices.

When asked what exactly Ernst and Young was investigating, Kalondo responded that several allegations had been levelled at the authority, and that these were being looked into.

According to reports, this includes a high-level forensic audit into the awarding of information and technology consultancy jobs to Wayne Phillip, said to run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Yesterday, Kalondo said the suspension and the report are internal matters.

The investigation is an internal issue and once the final report has been submitted to the board, the board will use its discretion whether to disclose the findings of the final report. Therefore the findings cannot be made available now.

A Police investigation into a break-in at Namfisa, during which equipment apparently used for the recording of voice data was allegedly removed from the Authority's offices by two of its employees, is continuing.

Lilly Brandt, Namfisa's General Manager for Corporate Services, who was appointed to act as CEO during Ritter's leave, will continue as acting CEO.

The Namibian

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