97% of CPB’s Tenders were Awarded to Local Contractors

By:Nghiinomenwa-vali Erastus
A six months review by the country Central Procurement Board has revealed that N$1,4 billion worth of tenders that it facilitated, almost all of them were awarded to Namibian bidders.
This comes at a time there has been an outcry by local contractors as they get sidelined when it comes to lucrative tenders, especially in infrastructure building.
The sidelining also comes in as some of the infrastructure tenders are bankrolled by outside lenders on conditions that they are done by the citizens/contractors of the lender- specifically the Chinese-funded project.
The ministry of finance has agreed to the existence of such arrangements this year.
In its announcement, the Public Procurement Board (CPB) also advocated for Open National Bidding, which is intended to benefit Namibian bidders in terms of section 2(b) of the Public Procurement Act.
This in turn stimulates the economy and creates much-needed employment and improves the living standards of Namibians, the Board explained.
At the same time keep the money within the economy.
Despite this call, CPB does not oversee all the public procurement to enforce local participation- small to medium tenders are issued by the respective OMAs themselves and there has no report in terms of how they allocate the public resources as opposed to the transparency at CPB.
While institutions like Nampower have been given the right to procure themselves regardless of the size of the tender without any CPB involvement.
During the period under review (six months), the Board awarded procurement contracts to 37companies to the value of N$1, 45 billion.
“It is worth noting that all procurements awarded during the reporting period except for one (97%) were awarded to Namibian bidders,” the Board announced.
The tender facilitated ranges from the construction of schools and VTCs, to health facilities, telecommunication services, security services, food stuff to schools, maintenance of road infrastructures, health supplies, and cleaning services.
The Board has also updated that it is currently managing 72 contracts.
Out of these 72 contracts, 33 are on track in terms of implementation, while 6 of them are behind in terms of implementation.
The Board had also indicated that six of its projects that they managing have not been reported on-meaning they do not know the progress made on these projects.
An IPP must be completed in accordance with Regulation 8 (3) of the PPA and public entities must submit their IPPs to the Board for approval.
Key components emanating from IPPs are the business case for the procurement, the method of determining cost estimates, the planned project duration, and the procurement method which will be applied.
During the period of under-reporting, the Board adjudicated and approved six (6) Individual Procurement Plans (IPP)to the value of more than half a billion (N$513,469,460).
The Board has, however, indicated that the value of IPPs submitted decreased with an amount of N$116,81 million in comparison to the same period in the previous financial year.
Furthermore, CPBN has seen a declining trend in the submission of procurement requests from public enterprises in the past three financial years.
The Board explained that it could be attributed to the poor performance of the economy.
“As the economy recovers, CPBN expects more procurements to be submitted by the public entities,” the Board hoped.
There was a significant decline in Direct Procurement requests during the period under review as the Board only approved one (1) Direct Procurement compared to six (6) procurements in the previous financial year.
The high number of direct procurements in the 2021/2022 financial year were health-related procurements because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which required the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) and Namibia Institute of Pathology (NIP) to procure vaccines and testing equipment from suppliers on an emergency basis.
The procurement process starts with the submission of Individual Procurement Plans by public entities to CPBN for approval.
The Central Procurement Board of Namibia is established as a juristic person by the Public Procurement Act.
The mandate for the Board is to conduct the bidding process on behalf of public entities for the award of contracts for the procurement or disposal of assets that exceed the threshold prescribed for public entities.
Secondly, to enter contracts for procurement or disposal of assets on its own behalf or on behalf of public entities awarded by the Board, and to direct and supervise accounting officers in managing the implementation of procurement contracts awarded by the Board. Email: erastus@thevillager.com.na