Africa-Press – Namibia.
The Ministry of Finance has put public entities under the spotlight once again, requesting records of compliance to the Code of Good Practice on Preferences issued in 2023 under the Namibian Public Procurement Act.
Public entities are requested to submit evidence-based information on the implementation of the Code of Good Practice on Preferences for the 2025/26 financial year.
This is to assess which public entities have applied preferences in procurement processes as envisaged by the Code of Good Practice on Preferences.
The code directs government institutions to grant Namibian suppliers and manufacturers national preference before procuring goods and services from outside.
It aims to promote, facilitate, and strengthen measures to implement the government’s empowerment and industrialisation policies.
The request was given last week during the consultative session of the Public Procurement Act by Government offices, ministries and agencies.
Compliance
Ba Phinehas Nsundano, Head of the Procurement Policy Unit, noted that a review of the Code’s implementation revealed continued reliance on foreign markets, which has affected the adoption of the code.
“Now we have enhanced monitoring and evaluation, starting with the annual procurement plans. As they submit, we track to see how many of their procurement activities align with the Code of Good Practice. If they’ve indicated they will not procure according to the Code of Good Practice, we then follow up and ask them to rectify and provide reasons for not doing so,” he said.
Additionally, quarterly reports must be submitted specifically for the procurement under the Code of Good Practice.
These reports will be collected, analysed and shared with the Office of the Prime Minister to enhance compliance.
More importantly, with enforcement now in place, more local businesses will benefit, as public entities will only source outside Namibia if the goods or services they require are unavailable or in insufficient supply, he said.
Moreover, local industries manufacturing the specific goods and services will have a market through government entities, increasing their revenue streams and lowering imports, which in turn reduces competition with outsiders.
“However, in doing so, they should not pay exorbitant prices above the market limit, but they should do so taking into account the market limit price,” he said.
Locals first
Following the consultative meeting, Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare wrote on his social media, “As emphasised by Ba Phinehas Nsundano, Head of the Procurement Policy Unit yesterday (last week) at Nipam, the goods and works to be sourced from within Namibia are listed below.
We will enforce this without fail. Namibian entrepreneurs, over to you.”
During the meeting, Ngurare highlighted ongoing bottlenecks and challenges in procurement. He emphasised that political principals must be aware of their institutions’ Annual Procurement Plans to ensure alignment between the accounting officers and political leaders.
He told the institutions, “The executive and the administrative leaderships often clash here because ministers are often not involved in the compilation of Annual Procurement Plans.
As a result, they do not know what is in the procurement plans. When they give instructions to carry out this or that project, they are told it’s not in the Annual Procurement Plan.”
Execution reports must also be shared with the political office bearers and regularly be discussed between the accounting officer and the political office bearers, he noted.
This must apply to the annual procurement plans of State-owned enterprises, regional councils and local authorities.
In addition, Ngurare said the government aims to strengthen local businesses amid high unemployment through procurement, by enforcing the Code of Good Practice on Preferences.
Office of the Prime Minister spokesperson Maximus Halwoodi noted that foreign supply chains will not be cut, but that priority will be given only to locals.
However, “this preference only goes to good-standing local companies that are legally registered and have all documentation up to date,” he said.
Halwoodi mentioned capacity and quality as important factors, stating that the framework for applying preferences under the Act should not compromise standards for goods, works and services, nor compromise value for money.
Once these goods and services are identified, the next step is for the government to place them under a document to be gazetted.
Some goods identified for sourcing in Namibia are bottled water, vegetables and fruits, seafood, cleaning materials, toilet paper, dairy products, salt, furniture, textiles, stationery, toiletries and pharmaceuticals and building sand and stones.
Services identified for sourcing in Namibia include construction, maintenance, repairs & alterations; plumbing; air-conditioning installations and servicing; electrical general works; rural electrification up to 33kV; welding; boiler-making; painting; tiling; and road maintenance and low-volume seal road development works.
Nsundano notes that transparency and accountability will be promoted.
This is through the standard open bidding process to publicise successful bidders.
Public entities awarding bids to the same bidders time after time will explain to the unit as to “what is the reason the other bidders are not able to meet the requirements,” he warned.
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