Martin Endjala
The Central Procurement Board of Namibia acting chairperson Amon Ngavetene has been labelled as a defender of corruption by the Landless People’s Movement party following his said defensive response to the N$650 million medical tender.
LPM leader Bernadus Swartbooi took a swipe to the CPBN chairperson calling him a defender of corruption, a alleging that he is shadowing those committing corruption and continue to do so as long as he continues to be arrogant and ignoring public concerns.
The leader said this during their first press briefing last week, stressing that it is wrong for a public entity such as CPBN to okay awarding one person one company such money without considering other companies.
Swartbooi opined that if N$650 million is divided into ten potions, for example giving out N$75 million tender to ten bidders it could solve some issues of businesses drying due to economical hardship.
This behaviour he said is an abuse to the sovereign rights of all Namibians, of which they all have the right to the entity and instead of defending what is wrong, he is supposed to carry out investigations because he serves the interests of the public.
But however, he opted to pretend that nothing is wrong, questioning him who gave him the right over the diaspora of the people.
Swartbooi reminisces their UNAM days, reminding him of their vow to fight corruption but chose to rather not fight it but become the biggest defender of the elite gain were the resources of the people is given to a few.
Furthermore, he is of the view that Ngavetene failed to address the mismanagement of funds from his subordinates and the manner processes are done.
In addition to this, his bold statement to state that President Hage Geingob has no powers to cancel the tenders is seen as extra arrogant.
It is for this reason that the party will be consulting with its counter parts political parties and various stakeholders to collectively stage a legal demonstration calling for the CPBN to do what is right or force it to totally shut down. This will be done in the coming weeks and a date will be communicated.
He is therefore calling on all Namibians to stand up and fight against corruption and to erode out whoever is promoting corruption.
Meanwhile, the said medical tender involves well known businessman Shapwa Kamanya who is said to have affiliations with SWAPO.
In yesterday clarification by the minister of Kalumbi Shangula, in his defense, the minister explained that there are about 400 items in their procurement document if which the much talk about condoms and surgical gloves are part of the list.
Therefore cautioning that the cancellation of this tender will have major negative repercussions to the health sector as many of the items are used on a daily basis.
Hence his call for the public to be mindful when throwing tantrums as such, while what is being said is not true. Adding that misinformation creates unrest.
He however did admit that there was an error on the part of the ministry and procurement board on the N$148 dollar cost of one packet of condom which caused sparked a hype countrywide.
Clarifying that the initial correct reading is 144 condoms per box translating to about N$38 million which then makes one packet of condom to cost only about N$37.00.
