A culture of kickbacks

The Supreme Court judgement, which ruled against the awarding a multimillion-dollar tender to a Chinese company to upgrade and expand the Hosea Kutako International Airport, is definitely a major victory for government given the financial situation we find ourselves in. The Supreme Court concluded that the tender procedures were seemingly flouted when the Namibia Airports Company (NAC) elected to hand Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group the tender worth about N$6.2 billion at the current exchange rate. The upgrade and expansion of the Hosea Kutako International Airport has been a contentious issue for quite some time now, with allegations that the tendering process was unfair, while it was considered by many as a skewed priority given the number of other challenges facing the nation. Proponents of the airport deal had argued that the airport deal – estimated to be three times bigger than the current one – was important for Namibia as it will bring new flight choices as well as more passengers. At the moment, Hosea Kutako International Airport only handles about 760 000 passengers annually, while the NAC had projected that the upgrades and expansion will lead to about three million air travellers making use of the spacious new terminal over a year period. We must give credit to those who never gave up pursuing this matter in a court of law. The Supreme Court ruling truly enhances integrity and curbs corruption in public procurement, which has for long been the target of greedy officials who get kickbacks from deliberately overpricing contracts. The fact that the airport upgrade tender did not receive treasury approval confirms the long-held assertion that there are those in government who are clearly abusing their positions of responsibility in both government and private sector. It is also our sincere hope that the new procurement act, which will be ready for implementation effective 1 April this year, will restore the ministry of finance’s image. The Tender Board has equally been given a chance to proof that it can award public tenders in a transparent and fair manner. Accountability must constitute a central pillar of our public procurement system. We can ill afford to be a kickback nation.