Africa-Press – Namibia. Affirmative Repositioning leader Job Amupanda has asked finance minister Ericah Shafudah why other ‘middlemen’ companies have not suffered the same blow dealt to Avril Payment Solution.
The government last month directed that its contract with Avril Payment Solutions, which operated the payroll deduction management system for all government employees, would not be renewed.
In particular, Amupanda wants to know why the contract of Silnam IT Solutions, a company that offers support and maintains the integrated financial management system at the Ministry of Finance, has also not been cancelled.
He alleges that former finance minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila handpicked Silnam in 2006.
“This middleman enjoyed Christmas at the finance ministry for close to 20 years now. Over this period, this middleman contract has been maintained through extension and extension,” he says.
Amupanda said this on Tuesday while posing questions to Shafudah in the National Assembly.
“The reality is that this middlemen arrangement creates more bureaucratic hurdles than other solutions. Take, for example, the payments made for the purposes of members of parliament to do their activities to and in the regions. This is what happens; (a) the National Assembly prepares and approves the documentation and transactions; (b) this is then submitted to the Ministry of Finance; (c) the Ministry of Finance then again looks at the transactions and accordingly approves,” he said.
Amupanda further alleged that Silnam’s contract has been maintained through extensions.
When the contract came to an end again last year, Amupanda said a request was made to extend the contract for six more months at the cost of N$4 million.
He further alleged that the Central Procurement Board of Namibia (CPBN) was coerced to approve it.
At the end of this six-month extension, he said, another request to extend the same contract was again submitted to CPBN – this time increased to 12 months and at an increased cost of N$8 million.
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