Cabinet flagged for influencing procurement board appointments
Written by on May 30, 2024
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says the Cabinet should not be involved in the appointment of the Central Procurement Board of Namibia (CPBN) chief executive officer (CEO).
IPPR researcher Frederico Links says the recent appointment process for the CEO of the CPBN has been mired in political interference, compromising the independence of the board in the process
Links was speaking at the launch of the Procurement Tracker Namibia 24, titled: ‘Data Deficit Undermines Governance And Oversight’ in Windhoek yesterday.
“Given the significance and profile of the entity, there is, strictly speaking, nothing in law that gives Cabinet the mandate or the power to approve or reject the appointment of the CPBN CEO,” Links said.
According to Links, for the longest time, political motivations and interference in appointments to senior government offices have contributed to the weakening of public sector governance systems and processes, undermining public trust.
Two months ago, it was reported that finance and public enterprises minister Iipumbu Shiimi presented Idi Itope as his choice to head the CPBN. At the time, the Cabinet instructed Shiimi to revisit his decision amid allegations that top performers in the interview were bypassed in favour of a candidate who lagged behind.
Reportedly, Telecom Namibia chief commercial officer Calvin Muniswaswa, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology executive director Audrin Mathe, Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB) chief operations officer Richwell Lukonga, and Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade deputy executive director Michael Humavindu also applied for the position.
Furthermore, Links recommended that the procurement board should be an independent entity in order to properly hold people and institutions accountable.
McHenry Venaani
“The procurement board should not fall under the finance ministry, the structure does not make sense,” he added.
Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) McHenry Venaani said he supports the recommendation of the IPPR to make the procurement board an independent entity, rather than it falling under the finance ministry.
“We have done a lot of amendments in terms of legislation in order to make the procurement board a semi autonomous body. In the long run, we need to have a body that has credibility,” Venaani said.
He further said the government meddling in the procurement board undermines transparency and accountability, because often those companies that get tenders are owned by individuals who have lobbied one another.
He provided an example of the health ministry, which has strong lobbying grounds, and most companies that have received these tenders got them through lobbying.
Finance spokesperson Wilson Shikoto said he could not respond to the queries sent to him at the time of publication.
According to the Procurement Tracker Namibia 24 report, Namibia has been undergoing the Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems (MAPS) series of meetings in April 2024.
The assessment revealed that there are major information and data gaps within the system that significantly undermine compliance monitoring and management.
The final report of the study is still not available, however, the insight received indicates that the government’s e-procurement portal is rudimentary, with limited options for data analysis and insights generation, which is hampering informed decision-making.
“The public procurement system has major challenges and a big part of the problem is the lack of accurate data that is not being reported out of the system,” Links said.
One of the main reasons the system is not providing the data it should, is that the primary data gatherer, the Procurement Policy Unit, is not capacitated and resourced to fulfil its systems monitoring and compliance enforcement mandate.
“The Public Procurement Act of 2015 was enacted 10 years ago, and it has been implemented for seven years, yet the framework and system implementation is still not happening or is not happening the way it should,” Links added.
The report recommended that Namibia should use the Open Data Contracting Standard, which offers several advantages for transparency, accountability and efficiency in public contracting processes.
It also provided data available on the e-Procurement Client System that indicate that there are about 173 public entities with procurement functions, of which only 32 were viewable by 23 May. This accounts for 19% of the plans for the 2024/25 financial year and only five of the 33 government offices, ministries and agencies were submitted.
The ministries of agriculture and health had the most downloaded plans at the time.
“Timely submission of annual procurement plans remains a major compliance issue in public procurement,” the report indicated.
The post Cabinet flagged for influencing procurement board appointments appeared first on The Namibian.
