Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Procurement Policy Unit’s lack of human resources has limited it from being able to investigate alleged suspicious procurement actions relating to the Ministry of Defence and the Namibia Airports Company.
This was revealed in the Institute for Public Policy Research’s (IPPR) procurement bulletin. IPPR questioned the Ministry of Finance on the actions the Procurement Policy Unit (PPU) has taken regarding the allegations made against the defence ministry and the Namibia Airports Company (NAC).
“The unit is yet to take a decision on whether to investigate or not. This has been a challenge due to limited human resources, but we are seized with the matter and will announce the way forward in the near future,” acting finance executive director Francois Brand says.
These sentiments were shared by finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi during his mid-term budget speech in the National Assembly last week. “Steps have been taken to address critical capacity challenges identified in both the PPU and the Central Procurement Board (CPB) as well as to exempt key public enterprises with adequate capacity to manage their own procurement functions such as NamPower,” Shiimi said.
IPPR in its report stated that the lack of capacity at the PPU limits it from fully executing its mandate and functions, as well as the limited capacity at the CPB.
“More staff should be recruited to fill the structures of the unit as well as provide opportunities for qualified training in the field of procurement to form the nucleus of the procurement system in Namibia,” the report suggested.
IPPR also recommended that CPB expedite the employment process for staff, to ensure capacity of the board. NAC ALLEGATIONS Popular Democratic Movement parliamentarian Nico Smit raised concerns about the cost of hand sanitisers procured by the NAC. Smit says the unit price had been inflated and implied that the procurement had been irregular.
NAC chief executive officer Bisey /Uirab said in March that the procurement of 1 035 litre units of hand sanitiser was done at the cost of N$375,20 per litre, for a total amount of N$388 332, from an entity called Crewfield Investment CC.
According to the IPPR, it is unclear when the procurement was done, but indications are that it was in 2020. /Uirab says in the NAC’s defence that at the time demand for hand sanitiser was high and supply had been constrained.
“The transaction was an emergency procurement.” MINISTRY OF DEFENCE CLAIMS
Also in March, mayor Job Amupanda claimed that the Ministry of Defence issued a purchase order for hand sanitisers, to an entity called Phoenix Capital Investment CC, without following tender procedures.
“The controversy revolved mostly around the cost of hand sanitisers which were to be supplied in either quantities of 1 000 or 450 units of 25 litre containers of hand sanitiser at a cost of N$5 000 each – depending on which document was viewed,” IPPR’s previous procurement tracker said.
The ministry’s first quarter procurement report indicates that the N$9,5 million was paid, but does not indicate when, the report states. “It is plausible that such a payment could have been made either in July or September 2020, which was the period of the second quarter and for which a quarterly procurement report is not available on the finance ministry’s website,” the report reads. However, the defence ministry’s third quarter procurement report does not reflect any procurement from or payments to Phoenix Capital Investments CC.
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