Africa-Press – Namibia. DEPUTY transport minister Veikko Nekundi blasted the public procurement process, which he said is the reason government cars take up to three months to be fixed.
Nekundi was contributing to the discussion on amendments to the Public Procurement Act, which was tabled in parliament last week by finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi.
“In the context of government garages, the current lengthy and bureaucratic administrative procurement process has brought the effective functioning of regional government garages to a standstill,” he said. Nekundi explained that the process to procure a simple car wiper, which costs less than N$200, takes up to three months.
“Some government garages should be decentralised and or delegated by allowing the regional offices to adjudicate the procurements at given limitations or thresholds. This should then be monitored through frequent reporting,” he said.
Nekundi suggested that the regional garages should be given a limit for the procurement of day-to-day needs, such as bulbs and wipers. “You have 10 government garages and imagine these cars are driven on different types of terrains. The procurement bid here is overwhelming and these cars are standing for a simple thing like a wiper,” Nekundi said.
Nekundi wants the procurement process to be decentralised to the regional offices. “It will expedite the process,” he said. Earlier this month, transport minister John Mutorwa told the media that at least 378 cars were standing at the government garage at Ondangwa, while Rundu had 83 vehicles standing due to the slow implementation process to acquire spare parts.
Mutorwa ,who disagreed with Nekundi, said the garages have no spare parts readily available to get vehicles repaired when they are brought in. “The Procurement Act is not the problem. The problem is some people who are wrongly applying the Procurement Act. I will soon discover where the bottleneck is.”
IS ANYONE OUT THERE? Nekundi was speaking to a half-empty parliament, as ministers, deputies and opposition party MPs did not attend yesterday’s session.
Shiimi, agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein, prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, her deputy Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and leader of the official opposition McHenry Venaani were among those absent from yesterday’s sitting.
Shiimi, Schlettwein and trade minister Lucia Iipumbu are among those who travelled to the Expo 2020 Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, for the Namibian Investment Summit. On Tuesday, the MPs requested that the sitting be cancelled, due to some still travelling back from the Independence Day celebrations at Swakopmund.
Last week, the National Assembly could not vote on the resumption of debate on the establishment of an association for the informal sector in Namibia. It was suggested that the motion be referred to a relevant parliamentary standing committee for further scrutiny and reporting back. However, 49 MPs were absent and the voting was deferred until a quorum could be reached.
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