Africa-Press – Namibia. A FORMER employee of the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) has failed with an attempt to win the dismissal of a lawsuit in which the fund is suing him over alleged fraud involving nearly N$530 000.
Former NSFAF payments officer Tomas Konghola will have to present his defence to a claim that the fund is pursuing against him, following the delivery of a judgement by judge Boas Usiku in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.
In his judgement, Usiku turned down an application by Konghola to have NSFAF’s claim dismissed after the court had heard testimony in support of the fund’s case.
The fund is suing Konghola for N$529 250, based on allegations that he fraudulently had payments made by the fund to bank accounts in the name of one Nelson Ndeitunga Sheefeni, who according to the fund was not a student funded by the NSFAF and was not entitled to receive those payments.
The fund is claiming fraudulent payments from its account to three bank accounts in Sheefeni’s name were made between October 2016 and April 2019.
The NSFAF is also claiming that Konghola effected the payments by accessing the payment system of the fund and fraudulently amending students’ banking details.
Konghola, who was employed by the NSFAF from November 2014 until he resigned near the end of March 2021, while facing disciplinary proceedings, is opposing the fund’s legal action against him.
In a plea filed at the court, Konghola’s lawyer, Mbanga Siyomunji, says Konghola is denying that he fraudulently prepared payment requisition documents and had payments made to accounts in the name of Sheefeni.
The authorisation of payments to students’ accounts was the responsibility of Konghola’s superiors at the fund, Siyomunji states.
He also says in the plea that information which Konghola entered in payment requisitions was obtained from files that he received from the fund’s student care centre.
In his judgement yesterday, Usiku noted that according to testimony given by two witnesses called to testify in support of the fund’s claim against Konghola, he had unlawfully and fraudulently facilitated payments totalling N$529 250 from the fund to Sheefeni, who was not entitled to receive those payments.
Based on the evidence relied on by the fund, the court could make a finding in favour of the NSFAF’s claim against Konghola, Usiku concluded.
“On the facts of the present matter, it cannot be said that the evidence led by and on behalf of the plaintiff is incurably and inherently improbable or unsatisfactory so as to be rejected out of hand,” he stated.
He also noted that one of the witnesses who testified during the hearing of the case so far was an internal auditor at the NSFAF. Part of the testimony given by the witness, Harris Ntema, was that an investigation of Konghola’s banking records by the Anti-Corruption Commission showed that while he was paid close to N$1,4 million in remuneration by the NSFAF from November 2014 to August 2020, a total amount of about N$3,9 million was paid into bank accounts in Konghola’s name during that period.
During the time he was working at the fund Konghola did not declare that he had additional sources of income outside his employment, Ntema noted in an investigation report filed at the court.
The substantial difference of N$2,5 million between his total remuneration from the fund and the amount paid into his accounts during the years he was employed by the fund needs to be explained in detail by Konghola, Ntema stated in his report.
Usiku postponed the case to 7 February, to have dates set for the further hearing of the matter, after delivering his judgement.
The fund is being represented by lawyer Francois Bangamwabo.
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