Martin Endjala
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has identified non-compliance with the government’s procurement system as a major problem in Namibia.
The IPPR released a report on Thursday in which it indicated that there are about 173 public entities with a procurement function.
Frederico Links, an IPPR research associate, did the study with financial support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF).
“All of these entities have to submit an annual procurement plan to the Procurement Policy Unit (PPU), which then publishes the plan on the e-procurement portal,” he pointed out.
According to Links, public entities operating outside of the central government are struggling to meet their transparency compliance obligations, as stated in the IPPR’s Procurement Tracker Namibia Bulletin.
“By May 23 May 2024, only 32 annual procurement plans were viewable via the e-Procurement Portal. That means only about 19% of public entities had submitted their plans to the Procurement Policy Unit (PPU) almost two months into the 2024/25 financial year,” he revealed.
Links said these figures are very worrisome, given that only five of the 33 government offices, ministries, and agencies (OMAs) had submitted plans to the PPU.
He added that only 15% of OMA plans were available at the time via the e-Procurement Portal.
According to the report, the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform plan was the most downloaded at the time, with 490 downloads, followed by the Ministry of Health and Social Services, with 406 downloads.
“Timely submission of annual procurement plans remains a major compliance issue in public procurement,” said Links.
He believes that data deficits undermine governance and oversight and that producing accurate data supports the principles of the public procurement framework.
“The Public Procurement Act of 2015 states that the public procurement system is founded on the principles of integrity, accountability, transparency, competitive supply, effectiveness, efficiency, fair dealing, value for money, responsiveness, informed decision-making, consistency, legality,” he explained.
He said that almost 10 years after the enactment of the Public Procurement Act of 2015 and seven years after its implementation, accurate and timely data on the system’s workings remain significantly lacking.
“This is, in fact, a finding of the recent Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems (MAPS) study that was conducted throughout the public procurement system from mid-2023 to early 2024,” he stated.
The report stated that the absence of accessible, accurate public procurement data is a global concern and a major corruption risk factor.
It also noted that this undermines or hinders public procurement systems’ transparency, accountability and integrity.
Links called for the PPU to be independent and given the authority to regulate and respond effectively to procurement issues.
He also suggested that the ongoing amendments to some regulations are not enough, adding that new ways must be adopted to address the issues at hand and enforce such regulations.
In contrast to non-compliance, Links believes that regular monitoring of entities and procurement systems should be the way to go in order to hold entities accountable.
He explained that internal problems, such as a lack of capacity or officials not fully understanding procurement regulations, can sometimes cause prolonged delays in procuring tenders.
“But this can be avoided, there are other ways to procure without having to go through the procurement process, such as direct procurement with government entities without having to involve the Central Procurement Board of Namibia. A case study is the Health Ministry with August 26,” he said.
