Common sense versus bureaucratic madness
Since his ascendancy in March, Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare has been preaching the mantra of “common sense.” Bureaucratic processes that hinder service delivery, he argues, must give way to practical interventions with shorter turn-around times.
It is the same philosophy quietly championed by President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, whose invisible hand removed middlemen from the health procurement system. Had this been done in time, Namibia would be far ahead of where it stands today.
Public procurement is meant to serve a noble purpose: transparency, competitive bidding, and giving Namibian businesses a fair shot at contributing to national development. Yet over time, entitlement, corruption, and abuse have hollowed out the system. The medical procurement machinery, for instance, has ground to a halt because those who lost tenders would not accept the results, exhausting internal appeals and then embarking on lengthy court battles — all while hospitals wait for critical medical supplies.
The problem has become so entrenched that even in pubs, intoxicated men advise one another to set up briefcase, fly-by-night companies to participate in health procurement, because that is where the looting thrives.
Despite these challenges, public procurement, when handled with speed and integrity, remains the best tool for delivering essential goods and services. Ngurare’s “common sense” approach recognises this. It asks a simple question: why wait seven months for a formal process while a classroom roof at Gabriel Taapopi school is leaking, when trainees from Valombola Vocational Training Centre next door could fix it today? Why paralyse solutions that are within reach?
In essence, common sense is about cutting through entitlement, corruption, and procedural lethargy. It is about finding practical solutions to problems that affect everyday Namibians. If Ngurare’s philosophy is applied consistently, our public services can move from a state of frustrating delay to one of tangible results.
It is the same philosophy quietly championed by President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, whose invisible hand removed middlemen from the health procurement system. Had this been done in time, Namibia would be far ahead of where it stands today.
Public procurement is meant to serve a noble purpose: transparency, competitive bidding, and giving Namibian businesses a fair shot at contributing to national development. Yet over time, entitlement, corruption, and abuse have hollowed out the system. The medical procurement machinery, for instance, has ground to a halt because those who lost tenders would not accept the results, exhausting internal appeals and then embarking on lengthy court battles — all while hospitals wait for critical medical supplies.
The problem has become so entrenched that even in pubs, intoxicated men advise one another to set up briefcase, fly-by-night companies to participate in health procurement, because that is where the looting thrives.
Despite these challenges, public procurement, when handled with speed and integrity, remains the best tool for delivering essential goods and services. Ngurare’s “common sense” approach recognises this. It asks a simple question: why wait seven months for a formal process while a classroom roof at Gabriel Taapopi school is leaking, when trainees from Valombola Vocational Training Centre next door could fix it today? Why paralyse solutions that are within reach?
In essence, common sense is about cutting through entitlement, corruption, and procedural lethargy. It is about finding practical solutions to problems that affect everyday Namibians. If Ngurare’s philosophy is applied consistently, our public services can move from a state of frustrating delay to one of tangible results.
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Namibian Sun
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