A Chinese company is now being investigated for employing an all-Chinese and all-male team of engineers which is working on the upgrading to Bitumen standards of Swakopmund – Henties Bay – Uis (Main Road 44 and Main Road 76) under the Roads Authority.
The Namibian Society of Engineers (NASE) has said that it has been alerted by members of the public of possible obscure and bizarre recruitment processes at the foreign-owned contractor company, whose name has not been disclosed to the media.
“The Society is in possession of documentary information to that regard, wherein a Chinese company is seemingly employing an all-Chinese and all-male grouping as ‘engineers’ on a Namibian government road project; The Upgrading to Bitumen Standards of Swakopmund – Henties Bay – Uis (Main Road 44 and Main Road 76) under the Roads Authority,” said NASE’s Secreatary for Industrial Relations, Kefas Kanyungule.
The company has been asked to submit the following within seven days:
1. Proof of compliance with the Engineering Profession Act by way of evidence of registration of the ‘engineers’ on the said project with the Engineering Council of Namibia.
2. The company’s recruitment policy as applied or reasons of employing the listed male foreign nationals on a Namibian capital project.
3. Verifiable proof that Namibia does not have sufficient capacity from which the company would have drawn appropriately qualified and registered professionals to execute the project.
4. A list of Namibian candidate engineers understudying the listed ‘engineers’, if indeed the listed ‘engineers’ are authorized by way of professional registration with the Engineering Council of Namibia (ECN) to train and transfer skills to anyone.
5. A written undertaking that contractual recruitment procedures as per the procurement regulations of the Republic of Namibia were complied with when the listed ‘engineers’ were recruited.
Kanyungulesaid failure to the submit the above, they will take it as admission of non-compliance and will be left with no other alternative but to coordinate the permanent liquidation of the obscure recruitment process the said company used, in favour of Namibian engineers.
