The Walvis Bay chapter of the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) has been rocked to its foundations by following fraud estimated at half a million dollars.

The office administrator, Wilhellem Schmidt is heavily implicated in the fraudulent scheme and has allegedly signed an admission of guilt.
Informanté learnt that auditors of the NCCI picked up a major discrepancy recently and established that monthly payments of certain members of the chamber at Walvis Bay were being paid into a bank account other than the branch’s official bank account. It is alleged that the local chapter of the NCCI lost hundreds of thousands of dollars through such fraudulent actions over the past year and a half and that acts of corruption were most likely also committed by the NCCI system for issuing of Certificates of Origin had been manipulated.
Auditors combing through the records discovered that a notice under a letterhead of NCCI Walvis Bay was sent to an undisclosed number of members in June 2010 informing them that the branch’s bank details have changed. Upon closer inspection the “new” bank account number turned out to be that of Schmidt’s wife.
In this way at least two members, who fell victim to the scheme, made payments to Schmidt’s bank account from June 2010. One particular NCCI member transferred more than N$20 000 at a time for the Certificates of Origin, which are compulsory for any exports. It is alleged that members also paid annual membership fees into this account.
Walvis Bay NCCI President, Tony Raw, and his Deputy, John Savva, reportedly confronted Schmidt on the matter early this week and Schmidt signed an admission of guilt. Numerous attempts to solicit comment from Schmidt, who has been on sick leave for some time now, were unsuccessful as his phone went unanswered.
At the time of going to press it remained unclear whether Schmidt had been suspended. It is anticipated that the ongoing investigation by auditors of the NCCI will uncover more details of how Schmidt went about administering this fraudulent scheme. The NCCI must yet issue a public statement on the revelations of fraud within its ranks.