The Minister of Urban and Rural Development, James Sankwasa has directed the Bukalo Village Council to open a criminal case against three employees who allegedly embezzled funds from the council .

About N$471,592 has been lost at the hands of three employees.

One of them, who is still an employee of the council, was served with a suspension letter, while two others are former employees.

"The money must still be recovered whether the person is working here or not. If you read Section 11 of the State Financial Act, it says whether a person was employed or is no longer employed, if he has stolen the money, the money must be recovered because it is a loss to the state. That is the State Financial Act; it doesn't matter that that person realised that he was going to resign; the law must still follow that person."

Sankwsa reminded the political leadership of Bukalo that it is their responsibility to guard against the misuse of government resources, including funds, instead of protecting the offenders.

Bukalo Village Council Chairperson Simataa Mubonda informed the minister that action has been taken against the suspects.

"They received their suspension letters as I speak now. Action has been taken already by the office of the CEO, so it's only that we need to take it further as you are saying because we need to open a case for theft, so this is very serious, and whoever is involved will be taken to account."