Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower) has rejected a request by an employee to be part of a company that was bidding for a tender at the parastatal.
The official has in turn accused the state-owned electricity company of turning a blind eye to similar cases where employees had a conflict of interest.
This episode brought to the fore long held-concerns about parastatal officials who benefit from private deals at the state companies they work for.
It comes at a time when the government is tightening the rules stopping officials from doing business with the institutions they work for.
NamPower safety officer Wilson Ruiters wrote an email to NamPower’s safety manager Nadia Haihambo on 17 January 2022, asking for permission to be part of a private company that was planning to bid for a contract at the state-owned power company.
“I am planning to join a joint venture partner in submitting a proposal to NamPower as per attached,” Ruiters said.
“Can you please find out from Simeon Amunkete (NamPower’s senior human resources manager) whether it would be fine? My plan is to resign from NamPower should we be the successful tenderer.”
The four year contract was for the provision of safety, health and environmental services and support for capital projects. It was advertised in December 2021.
Some of the capital projects include solar power plants such as the 20MW Omburu PV power project, the 40 MW wind power project, the 40 MW biomass power project, and the 50 MW firm power project.
The management rejected Ruiters’s request.
Haihambo explained why in an email that read: “After consultation I was informed that the said is not possible, in line with the current code of conduct and revised version, which will be shared by legal staff in the next two weeks or so”.
NamPower’s legal adviser, Victor Gabriel, told Ruiters that the provisions contained in the parastatal’s code of conduct, particularly clause 3.4 and 3.5 do not allow the parastatal to approve his request.
NamPower’s chief legal adviser Zoe Nambahu backed Gabriel’s stance and told Ruiters that his request would not be entertained.
“Please also be advised that you are within your rights to obtain independent legal advice on the matter in the event you believe the decision infringes on your rights,” Nambahu said.
NamPower’s code of conduct forbids employees from having interests outside NamPower, where such interests are in direct competition with the parastatal’s business.
The parastatal’s tender regulations forbid employees from affiliating with any company tendering for work at the parastatal.
The regulations also say that doing so can be regarded as a conflict of interest, or shall be considered as creating the impression of insider dealing.
Ruiters was unhappy with his request being declined, claiming that the same rules do not apply to everyone.
Ruiters named Power Line Africa as a case which he claims has family ties with NamPower employees.
“It is about time that this be addressed,” Ruiters said.
Power Line Africa was awarded a N$660 million tender in April last year. It has also done work for the parastatal in the past.
Juan Erlank, a site manager at Power Line Africa is the son of NamPower’s project manager Andre Erlank, who worked at the parastatal for 35 years.
Andre is responsible for planning, organising, and directing the completion of NamPower projects. He declined to comment.
His son Juan told The Namibian that he does not discuss work-related issues with his father.
“My father works there (NamPower), yes, but he falls under a different department. I have nothing to do with the work my father does. He is at substations and we do power lines for NamPower. I never worked directly with my father.
“I’m not doing tenders for our company. I work on site with the construction guys, I don’t even sit in the office,” he said.
Power Line Africa’s CEO Francois Schoonbee asserts that there is no conflict of interest.
“Andre Erlank is not part of any transmission line tender process or information where Power Line Africa is involved. We have extensive experience of over 50 years in the industry and we do not require information from third parties to have an understanding of what is required.
“Clearly there are disputes between NamPower and Mr Ruiters, which Power Line Africa are not party to,” Schoonbee said.
The Namibian individually contacted Ruiters, Haihambo, Nambahu, Erlank and Gabriel, who all declined to comment and directed questions to NamPower’s communication department.
NamPower MD Simson Haulofu declined to comment.
NamPower spokesperson Rosa Nikanor told The Namibian that it is against the company’s code of conduct for Ruiters to participate in its tenders.
“Ruiters, who is a NamPower employee, requested to participate in a NamPower bid in his personal capacity for his personal benefit. This is not permissible in terms of the policy and Ruiters was guided to comply with the policy, accordingly,” Nikanor said.
Commenting on the Erlank father-son relationship, Nikanor said Andre has declared it to the company.
“It is correct that Andre Erlank’s son works for Power Line Africa. This has been declared by the employee concerned. It is important to note that Andre does not serve on any decision making body in the awarding of procurement bids in NamPower, including those which involve Power Line Africa, such as bid evaluation committees or procurement committees,” Nikanor said.
Nikanor said that Andre has always recused himself from any aspect relating to Power Line Africa, to manage any conflict.
Conflicting employee interests getting in the way of fair tender processes has been a problem for NamPower in the past.
In 2016, the Windhoek Observer reported that senior NamPower manager Jurgen Senke joined Conco, a company that was a front runner for tenders for the Masivi-Shiyambe and the Kunene-Omatando substations tender worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The NamPower board subsequently stopped the company from getting the tender.
PROBLEMATIC
Former public enterprises minister Leon Jooste said employees at parastatals fail to declare possible conflicts of interest due to fear of compromise from benefiting.
He said this is something he has, over the years, observed which has placed companies at risk.
“Conflict of interest is something that must be managed in a mature and calculated manner to avoid any negative effects on the entity but overreacting can also cause unnecessary problems. I have a problem when individuals deliberately fail to declare a possible conflict of interest.
“The only reason why one would deliberately choose not to declare is because there is fear that declaring the interest will compromise personal gain in some form,” said Jooste.
It is crucial that public enterprises recognise how to deal with such matters from a risk management perspective, he added.
“The general tendency I observed is that people seem to misunderstand and then overreact when potential conflict of interests seem evident,” he said.
Parastatal executives have over the years benefited from companies they were supervising when they were in government.
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