Most govt entities fail to meet procurement deadlines, report finds

Only 5% of procurement plans for 2026/27 were submitted on time, revealing serious gaps in oversight and implementation of procurement policies.

A review of Namibia’s public procurement system by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has revealed widespread delays and non-compliance in the submission of procurement plans, raising questions about the government’s ability to implement preferential procurement effectively.

Data from the e-procurement client system shows that by 5 March, only 26 of 176 public entities (15%) had submitted their annual procurement plans for the 2026/27 financial year.

Of those, only eight plans (5%) were submitted before the official December 2025 deadline. For the previous 2025/26 financial year, 94 entities (53%) had submitted plans, but only five (3%) met the deadline.

The findings were published in Procurement Tracker Namibia, compiled by IPPR research associate Frederico Links.

The bulletin monitors the implementation of the Public Procurement Act of 2015 framework and tracks compliance with annual procurement plan submissions.

Good practice

According to the report, public entities are required under the code of good practice to integrate preferences in procurement plans and submit them to the Procurement Policy Unit (PPU) at least three months before the financial year starts.

Procurement awards applying preferences must also be reported quarterly, and the PPU monitors implementation.

The code of good practice, gazetted in January 2023, specifies which suppliers are eligible for preferential procurement.

Beneficiaries include manufacturers, micro, small and medium enterprises, youth- and women-owned businesses, previously disadvantaged persons, environmentally conscious suppliers, and those employing Namibians.

Preferential procurement is defined as selecting a person or supplier as the favoured provider based on these categories.

The code is valid until March 2028, and the Public Procurement Amendment Bill of 2025 largely maintains the same provisions. However, the IPPR report highlights that delays in submitting procurement plans limit oversight, hinder transparency and complicate the monitoring of preferential procurement implementation.

Fundamental framework

Finance Minister Ericah Shafudah emphasised in her 26 February budget statement that preferential procurement is central to government’s medium-term expenditure framework.

She noted that the good practice code “lays out the fundamental principles and regulations for preferential procurement in Namibia” and allows for national and exclusive preferences to support local manufacturers, youth, SMEs, women and other designated categories.

“The government urges all public entities to implement the code of good practice to strengthen industrialisation policies and ensure public spending benefits our people,” Shafudah stressed.