Africa-Press – Namibia. Following complaints by Okahandja residents over the appointment of a debt collector, a community meeting with councillors, convened over the weekend, resolved to have the issue re-looked once the re-election of office-bearers at the town is done by this Friday.
This comes after the Okahandja municipality publicly announced it has employed a debt collector to enforce its credit policy, a decision residents did not welcome with open arms.
Okahandja CEO Alphons Tjitombo said the high increase in non-payment of accounts saw the municipality owed in excess of about N$200 million in respect of water consumption, rates, taxes, refuse and land sales.
The residents are now protesting that council never consulted them on the issue before enforcement.
The community is demanding council revokes its decision to appoint RedForce as its debt collector until public consultation is done. On 27 September 2022, the municipality issued a public notice, informing residents about the appointment of a debt collection agent for five years, starting on 17 October 2022. On Sunday, the community, with some Okahandja councillors convened a meeting to see how best they can address the issue of debt collection.
After consultations between the residents and councillors, it was decided the issue would be re-considered when new office bearers are elected into office.
The councillors’ term of office lapsed on 28 November 2022; hence, they cannot sit for any council meetings to discuss issues.
Speaking to the community committee leadership, its chairperson Petrus Kampaku confirmed the meeting with councillors over the debt collection issue.
“We all agreed the issue will be re-looked. We picked up the decision to appoint RedForce was done without council approval. It’s just officials at the municipality who endorsed that appointment. The councillors promised to meet the community next year in January because councillors will only be sworn in on 9 December. They also promised to convene a special meeting after the swearing-in on Friday to deal with the issue,” Kampaku said.
Contacted for comment, Tjitombo said the appointment of RedForce was done above board.
He explained on 3 February 2022 the council resolved to outsource the collection of debts to external debt collectors.
According to him, a resolution was reached “that approval is granted to procure external or third party debt collection services through procurement provision (Procurement Act, 15 of 2015).
Equally, Tjitombo said on 3 May 2022 a bid advert was prepared and sent to the newspapers to solicit bids.
The closing date for the submission of bids was 9 June 2022.
On 26 July 2022, he indicated a procurement committee recommended to the accounting officer for the appointment RedForce Debt Management cc as recommended by the ad-hoc bid evaluation committee.
Furthermore, on 29 August 2022, a contract was awarded to RedForce in the absence of objections in terms of Section 55 of the Public Procurement Act, Act 15 of 2015.
On 6 September 2022, the successful bidder accepted an award offer for the services of debt collection.
Thereafter, the council notified the community of the appointment of RedForce via the newspaper on 29 September 2022
“RedForce shall carry out debt collection efforts in Okahandja and surrounding areas with the aim of recovering all outstanding monies owed to the municipality in respect of area accounts by both residential and business clients,” the notice reads.
Council also informed the public and residents at large that services for all handed-over accounts shall be suspended during the period that the account is with RedForce until the account is settled and/or a payment arrangement is done.
Councillor Issascar Katuuo, who served as Okahandja mayor until the office bearers’ term lapsed, was also part of the community meeting.
“The meeting took place. Our time as councillors lapsed on 28 November. We are waiting for the swearing-in of new office bearers on 9 December so we can tackle the issue among many other issues raised by the community,” Katuoo said.
Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) councillor Asker Aupindi, who was also part of the meeting, said the appointment of RedForce came as a surprise to them.
“As councillors, we realised there is N$200 million owed to the council. So, we checked how best we can collect these debts. Management decided to find debt collectors. The idea was good and fine with us. To our surprise, we found out about the appointment of RedForce without the endorsement of the management committee and the signature of the committee’s chairperson. We never saw the advert,” Aupindi charged.
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