Namwater taken to Ombudsman over telephone bill

Written by Patience Nyangove
Thursday, 12 November 2009

A switchboard operator at Namwater, Erika Namaseb, has dragged her employer to the Ombudsman’s office after the company deducted over N$3,000 for alleged private calls from her salary.



Namaseb alleges that between January 2009 and June 2009, the company accused her of incurring N$6,000 in private calls and she made arrangements with her supervisor to deduct N$200 from her salary monthly.

However, she alleges the Human Resources manager, Beata Muteka, deducted N$3,300 from her salary without informing her.

Namaseb claims that Namwater management accused her of being the only employee at the company who makes personal calls.

“They said I am the only one, ...the whole company that uses the company phones to make my own private calls so I should settle the bill. I requested for an itemised bill but they refused to hear me.

“It’s not true that I am the only one who uses company phones to make private phone calls,” Namaseb said.

Eileen Rakow, Director of Investigations at the Ombudsman’s office confirmed receiving a complaint from Namaseb.

“Namaseb did lodge a complaint with us and we had a meeting with the Namwater management and we made a few suggestions. The preliminary inquiries have been done. However, investigations on the case are still ongoing,” Rakow said.

Namwater, acting Manager: Corporate Communications and Public Relations Tommy Numbala said Namaseb had accrued N$6,026.70 in her private calls while conducting her husband’s private business.

“Although the investigations into misconduct are not yet completed, it was established and confirmed by the employee, that she used the company phone to connect her husband who is not a company employee to various customers of his to conduct his private business.”

Numbala said Namaseb accepted responsibility for the calls and marked the N$6, 026.70 worth of calls and signed for the amount.

“Mrs Namaseb confessed that the calls were made in favour of her husband. She agreed to pay back the money to the company. The employee was informed that arrangements had to be made to pay back the money and the employee offered to pay back the money in instalments of N$200 per month.”

Numbala said Namwater did not accept the N$200 monthly instalment suggested by Namaseb because she committed a bad act, which in terms of the company policy is tantamount to fraud.

He also said the company was going to deduct the money owed within the shortest possible time, however, the amount deducted should not exceed a third of her gross earnings.