Africa-Press – Namibia. THE suspended chief regional officer (CRO) of the //Kharas region, Beatus Kassette, has not been charged by the regional council 10 months after being suspended.
Kassette was suspended with full pay last year, after a special council meeting on 25 June.
He refused to comment when contacted.
Acting CRO Bennie Diergaard says a charge sheet was compiled last year and sent to urban and rural development minister Erastus Uutoni.
Diergaard says this was to inform Uutoni of the suspension and for the minister to sign off the charge sheet to be presented to Kassette.
“However, since the suspension of the CRO was already done by the councillors, the minister did not sign off the charge sheet as he felt he was not notified prior to the suspension,” he says.
This has led to a deadlock and the matter was left unresolved, he says.
Kassette is accused of insubordination, among others.
Executive director of urban and rural development Nghidinwa Daniel, however, refutes the claims that Uutoni has refused to attend to the rules of the suspension.
Daniel says the minister received a letter from //Kharas Regional Council chairperson Josef Isaack dated 7 October 2021, accompanied by a draft charge sheet for the minister’s signature as required by the Public Service Act of 1980.
Daniel says Uutoni’s office replied in a letter dated 20 October 2021, requesting the chairperson to provide him with documentary proof that the regional council acted in full compliance with the Public Service Act.
These provisions are contained in the Public Service Amendment Act and states that only a Cabinet member or minister may charge and suspend a chief executive officer (CEO) or CRO.
The chairperson wrote to the minister again in January this year, saying the minister reiterated his position of acting lawfully and following due processes, but that the regional council has failed to do so, Daniel says.
He says the same laws that have conferred powers on regional councils and the minister also set out the procedures to be followed when appointing, suspending or removing staff members.
“The minister has no objection to people holding public office and an accounting officer being held accountable. His request simply seeks to ensure that the action of the council and what he is being asked to do, in this case sign off the charge sheet, are in strict adherence to the laid-down procedures and provisions of the law,” Daniel says.
Isaack says Section 2(a) of the Public Service Act mentions the CRO suspending staff members, and not the council suspending a CRO.
He says the council has followed the provisions of the Regional Councils Act 24 of 1990, which says the accounting officer can be suspended with the “writing” of the minister, but not with the approval of the minister.
“Therefore we could suspend the CRO. This provision can also be interpreted differently, but the fact remains that the minister needs to sign the charge sheet,” Isaack says.
He says he has prepared a third letter for the minister’s office to clear out the legal provisions which he will table at the council’s management meeting next week.
“If the minister still does not meet us halfway in this matter after that letter, the council will proceed to charge Kassette, and the minister can take us to court so all these legal provisions can be fleshed out in court,” he says.
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