THE Anti-Corruption Commission earlier today arrested five people suspected of defrauding the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia of approximately N$560 million.
Four of those arrested are former Namcor senior employees, with one person believed to be a spouse of one of the arrested officials.
Media institutions throughout the day reported on social media that those arrested were former Namcor managing director Immanuel Mulunga and former head of supply and distribution, Cornelius (Cedric) Willemse. It has also been speculated that former chief financial officer Jennifer Hamukwaya has also been arrested, while former territory manager responsible for commercial downstream sales and marketing, Olivia Dunaiski, is believed to have reported herself to the ACC.
More arrests are expected to be made.
The ACC could not provide more details around those arrested or their alleged offences pending the accused people being charged and appearing in court tomorrow.
However, The Issue has it on good authority that the charges range from corruption, fraud, racketeering, money laundering and offences related to contravention of tax laws.
This comes after law enforcement agencies concluded investigations dating back to 2023, looking into allegations that a group of Namcor senior employees and businesspeople conspired to fleece the national oil company of over N$560 million in bogus oil transactions where the parastatal supplied politically connected companies with petroleum products but was never paid for the fuel.
The said entities did so with the help of Namcor officials who allegedly manipulated internal controls and processes to circumvent the parastatal’s rules and procedures. The arrests also come a day after the parastatal announced that it had incurred N$841 million in bad debt and was blaming Mulunga for the losses.
At the centre of criminal investigations are three companies linked to businessman Peter Elindi, his brother Malakia Elindi, his son Austin Elindi and his relative Victor Malima. The companies are Enercon Namibia, Erongo Petroleum and Eco Fuels.
This year Namcor moved to have the said companies involved liquidated.
CREDIT LIMITS
The Issue understands Erongo Petroleum, controlled by Austin Elindi, benefited from what investigators termed as generous discounts and rebates not given to other clients by the Namcor management.
The company allegedly received fuel and oil products from the State-owned entity to the tune of N$495 million, and it only managed to pay N$255 million, leaving it with a debt of N$233 million at the time. Namcor took steps to have it liquidated early this year.
The Issue learnt that authorities were probing allegations that Erongo Petroleum only had a credit limit of N$3 million. This amount was pushed up to N$10 million, but even that revised limit was ignored. Between November 2022 and May 2023, Erongo Petroleum had received N$238 million worth of fuel products without paying a cent to the parastatal.
Another company under the microscope is Eco Fuel, owned by Victor Malima. Eco Fuel was allegedly also allowed to rack up debt of N$73 million for fuel products taken and not paid for. When Namcor started asking questions, Eco Fuel’s debt was in March 2022 ceded to Enercon Namibia. Enercon is owned by Peter and Malakia Elindi, who hold a 75% stake, while the remaining 25% is owned by the military through its business arm, August 26 Holdings.
The Issue understands that by July 2022, Enercon’s debt to Namcor was N$35 million. The company had a credit limit of N$15 million despite not providing a credit guarantee, as per its trading agreement with Namcor. Combined with Eco Fuel’s N$73 million, Enercon ended up owing Namcor N$108 million.
Victor Malima of Eco Fuels served as both Enercon’s chairman and managing director at some point. Between July and December 2022 Enercon again got N$35 million worth of product without paying. More fuel was allegedly supplied without the company paying during 2023, leading to Namcor losing N$327 million as a result of supplying fuel to Enercon, who was not paying for its product.
GOVERNMENT PROPERTY
In July 2022, while Namcor was ignoring its internal policies to give Enercon special treatment with credit line extensions, Mulunga was also approving a deal for Namcor to buy Enercon’s assets for N$53 million, a company that owes the parastatal over N$300 million At the time.
The assets turned out to belong to the government, specifically the ministry of defence, as part of its 15-year fuel supply contract with Enercon that started around 2014.
In December 2023, Namcor sued Mulunga, Peter and Malakia Elindi, former Enercon board member and retired August 26 Holdings chief James Auala in their personal capacities for the loss. Former Namcor senior employees Hamukwaya, Willemse, Dunaiski and Davis Maphosa were all listed as respondents.
Court documents provide an insight into how that deal was structured and how the money flowed from Namcor to Enercon and back to Namcor.
Namcor paid the money in two instalments on 19 July last year. The first instalment was for N$35 million, and the second for N$18.2 million. Both payments were made to Enercon’s account at Bank Windhoek.
Former chief financial officer Hamukwaya, former head of supply and distribution Willemse, former territory manager responsible for commercial downstream sales and marketing Dunaiski and Maphosa, who used to be Namcor’s retail manager, have all been cited as defendants in the suit by Namcor.
