By:Nghiinomenwa-vali Erastus
The Ministry of Finance has revealed that public entities that get state funds remain reluctant to plow back the money by buying from local producers.
A special request for reports on the implementation of the directive by the Ministry of Health and Social Services, Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security, Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs, and Ministry of Education Arts and Culture points to these ministries as the main culprit.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has been issuing directives instructing public entities operating in the north of the Red Line to locally procure meat, poultry products, fruits, and horticultural products.
The ministry assessment revealed that the procurement of meat, poultry products, fruits, and horticultural products north of the Veterinary Cordon Fence “shows that there is a low level of compliance with the local sourcing directive”.
The MoF says some public entities are complying, while others are not.
The excuse for not complying or pooling resources back to local producers, says the Ministry, is “due to the lack of understanding on how to implement the directive.”.
The MoF has developed a Training Programme to provide training on how to implement the local sourcing directive in the bidding processes and how to include the implementation of the directive in the bidding documents.
The MoFthrough its Public Procurement Units receives quarterly reports detailing the progress of implementing the procurement plan.
These reports are supposed to be sent at the end of the month following the end of the quarter to monitor compliance with the directive.
Despite excuses from the public entities of not understanding the Sourcing Locally Directive, the MoF explained that the Standard Bidding Document (SBDs) supports the achievement of various policies and objectives, including the conduct of the bidding process.
The implementation reports of the Local Sourcing Directive include issuing a special request for reports on the implementation of the directive from the Ministry of Health and Social Services, Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security, Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs and Ministry of Education Arts and Culture.
“Reports from the above public entities include information on the procurement of meat, fruits, and horticultural products for delivery north of the Veterinary Cordon Fence shows that they are a low level of complies to the local sourcing directive,” the MoF said.
Despite non-compliance from public entities, the Public Procurement Act (PPA) has empowered the ministry to conduct procurement audits to ensure compliance to the PPA, regulations, directives and guidelines issued therein.
According to the updates, the finance ministry has undertaken various procurement audits at different public entities to establish whether the provisions of the PPA and its directives have been complied with in regard to local sourcing which includes the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform and Ministry of Defence.
Meanwhile, the country’s entrepreneurs experienced a high cost of doing business.
The ministry explained that the PPA directed the Central Procurement Board, or a public entity to award a procurement contract to the bidder having submitted the lowest evaluated substantially responsive bid which meets the qualification criteria specified in the pre-qualification or bidding documents.
“Pursuant to the above, public procurement is not awarded based on price only. One first needs to meet the eligibility qualification criteria and delivery via technical evaluation, before considering the price that should be in line with the benchmark market price estimate,” the MoF explained.
The ministry is of the view that Namibian producers should get a place in the procurement system as long as they comply with the eligibility and qualification criteria as set out in the bidding document.Email: erastus@thevillager
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