Cancelled tenders leave healthcare on deathbed

The cancellations and court battles delaying the procurement of pharmaceutical products has plunged the Namibian healthcare system into a life-threatening crisis where critical medications such as adrenaline, antibiotics and morphine are in dire need. Adrenaline is used for patients suffering from cardiac arrest as well as those with serious breathing problems, while cancer patients are mostly administered morphine. Executive director Ben Nangombe said the situation is so grim that the health ministry is currently in the process of approaching treasury for an exemption to buy the drugs so urgently needed.“The situation is dire and it will eventually cost us more on a long-term basis. We desperately need a long-term supplier that would enable us to do forecasts and call in when we need supplies. When we buy once-off on a short-term basis, the prices are higher because people now know you are operating in emergency mode.”Nangombe this week told Namibian Sun they have now been forced to manage the ministry on a ‘cuca-shop’ basis because of the delays. “These delays are affecting us significantly as we now have to acquire critical supplies through buy-outs, which means we have to go out and buy smaller quantities from local suppliers and our threshold is only N$25 million. Now, if we need supplies worth more than N$100 million, imagine the shortfall.”Sleepless nightsNangombe, who said he goes to bed 01:00 in the morning these days as they are trying to get a grip on the situation, highlighted that they are currently in need of all types of medicine - including medication for hypertension, epilepsy and antibiotics for children. More than 1 000 types of medication are needed, he added. “These are supplies we need in theatre – life-saving medication. Imagine if you have to go theatre and there is no adrenaline. How do we treat people [injured] in accidents and those in severe pain when there is no morphine? “Even the anti-retroviral [ARV] treatment tender is now being challenged. How will we run the public health system if this the situation?” Nangombe asked. According to him, the ministry has started with research to find out from local companies how much stock they have in case it needs these, but “as the guys in the pharmaceutical industry know each other, government is often taken advantage of”. He added that they have even considered going directly to manufacturers, but since Namibia’s economy is a drop in the global bucket, it cannot compete with bigger countries. “Even with the bidding process that is open to international companies, you won’t see a manufacturing company come to the table because of the size of our economy,” he said. Scramble for tendersA billion-dollar pharmaceutical supplies tender, advertised on 29 April 2022 by the Central Procurement Board of Namibia (CPBN) on behalf of the ministry, is now on ice, with tenderpreneurs fighting each other in court. The submission of bids for this tender closed on 8 November 2022 and on 26 April this year, the CPBN awarded bids to various companies. One of these companies, Cospharm Investments, was initially disqualified because it had allegedly submitted a handwritten bid where someone had written over the prices as well as a typed sheet with prices that had no overwriting. The company, whose majority shareholder is a five-year-old child, then applied for a review of the process and was subsequently awarded a N$1.3 billion tender.In the process, a bid by Africure Pharmaceutical Namibia - owned by Shapwa Kanyama - was cut from about N$134 million to a measly N$45.9 million. Kanyama appealed to the High Court for an urgent interdict to stop the CPBN from implementing the award to Cospharm, claiming it would suffer ‘irreparable financial harm’. “The most worrying and concerning issue is the fact that Cospharm and CPBN engaged alone. No other parties were cited in this opaque reconsideration process that led to such a huge amount being allocated. “Africure has set up a factory at the cost of about N$90 million which produces pharmaceuticals and was until recently producing ARVs locally and supplied those to the ministry of health,” he said in his founding affidavit. jemima@namibiansun.com

Cancelled tenders leave healthcare on deathbed

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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Cancelled tenders leave healthcare on deathbed

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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