The Minister of Urban and Rural Development, James Sankwasa, has expressed shock over financial irregularities at the Tsumeb Municipality following the Auditor General's report, which revealed questionable spending of millions of dollars.

Sankwasa said he was stunned after seeing the report that also indicated that Tsumeb Municipality did not submit financial reports for 2022/2023 and 2024/2025.

The municipality's last audit opinion was adverse. 

The minister also questioned the appointment of Ducharme Namibia Financial Management Solutions, contracted to prepare financial reports from 2022 to 2026. 

"And N$6.4 million is the contract amount together; this brings me to N$11 million. Could you please clarify the rationale behind allocating N$6 million for the preparation of financial records when there are no records available from the auditor?"

Both Mayor Mathews Hangula and the Finance Manager, Carolina Damaseb, said they are unaware of the N$5 million. 

Tsumeb Town Engineer Pedro Manuel intervened to explain the N$6.4 million contract, stating, "We only received one bid at that time, which is the one currently being utilised. We did market research where we checked information from the Swakopmund municipality as well as the Walvis Bay municipality. I believe we also considered Windhoek, if I am not mistaken."

Sankwasa was not satisfied with the explanation. "I do not accept what you presented to me. Namibia has more than six companies in financial management, and the system I've picked from my training—maybe you are not aware that I hold a certificate in detection and prevention of fraud. When you tell me that you only called local authorities, I want to remind you that accountants in this country have an association." 

He stated that any potential collusion among local authorities is unacceptable and will always be wrong. 

The media was later asked to leave for a closed-door meeting.