Spy agency frustrates tender board

The head of the Central Procurement Board of Namibia (CPBN), Patrick Swartz, says they remain understaffed due to the National Intelligence Service's strict vetting process, which potential employees have to subject themselves to.

Before anyone can start working for the board, they need to be subjected to a vetting process by the intelligence agency, which can last as long as three months, Swartz said.

“The Central Procurement Board of Namibia is understaffed at the moment,” said Swartz, when asked whether the board had a sufficient number of persons working for it to vet and issue tenders.

He, however, said this would soon be addressed as the board had approved an organisational structure meant to streamline its work activities.

“This will see more staff members being appointed in the next coming months,” Swartz said.

When asked whether the board would work around spy agency vetting procedures meant to scrutinise new staff members coming in, he said that was a matter beyond his control.

“I can confirm that the vetting process is a very long process which has a delay on recruitment as it can take up to three months to be concluded. Unfortunately, the central procurement board has no control over the vetting process, as it is done by our external stakeholders,” he said.

The CPBN has laid the blame for the slow awarding of tenders lies squarely at the feet of some public entities, saying the shoddy completion of bidding documents affects the time in which tenders can be issued. The board has in the past drawn criticism for the slow awarding of tenders from public policy watchdog Institute of Public Policy and Research (IPPR), which compiles a procurement report it issues regularly.

“One of the factors that the central procurement board has noted with concern that is contributing to the slow pace of the issuing of tenders is the submission of standard bidding documents (SBD) by public entities,” Swartz said.

The board is forced to send back bidding documents not filled in correctly, he said.

“The board has been experiencing challenges with SBDs that some of the public entities are failing to complete correctly and as per the set requirements and standards.



These shortcomings normally result in the CPBN sending back such documents to the concerned entity, thus resulting in the delay of issuing of tenders,” he said.



Swartz added the documents delaying the awarding of tenders are produced by the public procurement unit (PPU) housed within the ministry of finance, adding that no one is allowed to alter such documents without prior approval by the PPU.



Swartz said solely blaming the board for the slow awarding of tenders is unfair.



“In my opinion, the criticism is not fair, as I believe the public does not understand the procurement process entirely as well as the various roleplayers in the procurement process and the standard that needs to be met by the various stakeholders.”



The board now sends staff members to assist public entities where it's found that bidding documents were not submitted as per standards set.



“In order to mitigate these shortcomings, the board has embarked upon a process by which the administrative staff will assist procurement employees of the affected public entity to prepare the bidding documents to fasten the procurement process,” he said.



Another mitigation planned for implementation in the last quarter of the financial year is to host a training session with stakeholders, Swartz said. “The aim of the training is to provide our stakeholders with the necessary information and to inform them about our expectations when they complete SBDs.”







Tenders awarded thus far



The CPBN has, since its establishment and until October 2019, made 40 decisions at board level on tenders. Of the total, 22 bids were approved, seven were referred back to their respective entities for further scrutiny while six were conditionally approved, according to the IPPR, which compiles a procurement tracker.



One bid was also declined, while another was revised.



Furthermore, 54 of the 178 government procuring entities submitted annual procurement plans to the finance ministry's public procurement unit, which means only 30% of bids complied with the law.



“Transparency and accountability remain serious challenges in the public procurement system,” the IPPR noted in its October 2019 tracker.







Cause for concern



Frederico Links, who compiles the tracker, said the lack of information from the CPBN was a cause for concern.



Asked whether the IPPR had received information pertaining to the value of tenders approved, Links said the board's failure to produce audited verified annual reports made a mockery of transparency.



“To date, there have not been any figures. We have reached out to them. Where are the reports for the last two years since its inception?” Links queried.



“This is not what transparency and accountability looks like,” he said.



For the 2018/19 financial year, research by the IPPR showed that the CPBN adjudicated on 338 procurement actions by government departments, agencies and enterprises. Of these, 112 were approved, 68 were referred back, 33 cancelled and 106 upheld.



Overall, the CPBN made 28 decisions per month for the 2018/19 financial year, with the highest number of decisions, 75, taken in September 2018.



Another issue the research revealed is that the CPBN website indicates the board issued 248 decisions on public procurement actions from April 2018 to January 2019.



The IPPR team, however, found that these “figures do not add up”, and that the total number of decisions actually comes to 295 for that period.



Quizzed on whether he was concerned that the CPBN had not yet presented annual reports, finance minister Calle Schlettwein said they would be issued in due course, provided the Office of the Auditor-General had approved them.



“We want to issue the annual report 2017/18 by the end of March. The 2018/19 financials are [being] audited right now. We hope to issue the annual report for this by May 2020,” he said.

OGONE TLHAGE