THE National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor) is left with temporary board member Ruth Herunga as interim caretaker.
This happened after one of its last executive managers, finance manager Paulus Ngalangi, resigned yesterday.
Ngalangi followed company secretary Josefina Nekongo, who walked away last month, and Inocencio Verde, the group’s general manager for operations, while the board of directors fired its chief executive officer (CEO), the Fishrot-accused Mike Nghipunya.
The company has been running on autopilot since last year when Nghipunya was put behind bars awaiting trial in the corruption scandal.
Fishcor’s board chairperson Mihe Gaomab II in a press statement yesterday afternoon announced that Herunga will take control of the troubled Fishcor ship, while the board is looking for a new CEO.
“The board resolved to assign an interim caretaker position in the form of Ruth Herunga to attend to pressing matters on a daily basis at the Seaflower Whitefish Corporation at Lüderitz,” he said.
He said the board has appointed Rosa Tjijombo as production manager and has advertised the position of company secretary.
“No one is left in top management, and the board is seized with the matter to address managerial obligations,” Gaomab said.
Tjijombe last year obtained a master’s degree in industrial engineering from the Namibia University of Science and Technology.
Her thesis was titled ‘Developing a Methodology for Quantifying Individual Waste to Manage Lean Application: The Case of Seaflower Whitefish Corporation, Namibia’.
The process of appointing a new CEO is in its final stages, Gaomab said.
“The board has finalised psychometric assessments, and has a shortlist where we plan to have interviews by next week, and [will] then recommend a CEO in line with governance procedures and Fishcor’s company policy,” he said.
Gaomab said the board has been hitting walls in its attempt to develop a turnaround strategy for the tainted state-owned fishing company.
“The board has faced challenges of the freezing of the account with its concomitant financial constraints, and the current wave of resignations, as well as the need to exercise more control as the board at our subsidiaries – let alone the legal challenges,” he said.
He said they are currently working on a turnaround strategy in line with the minister of public enterprises’ integrated business plan.