STAFF WRITER
THE Institute for Public Policy Research(IPPR) says the decision by President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to cut out the middlemen and opt for direct procurement in certain tenders especially in the health sector is prone to abuse and risks clouding transparency.
IPPR Researcher Frederico Links said the possibilities of the government failing to be transparent when using direct procurement are high in the future.
While announcing the National Development Plan 6 last month Nandi-Ndaitwah emphasised the need to cut out the middle men in some important procurement plans and procedures especially in the health sector where tenderpreneurs have become instant millionaires by inflating prices of goods and services.
Drawing parallels to the defunct Tender Board which was disbanded for failing to satisfy transparency and fueling potential corruption in the public procurement system, Links said the current public procurement system in Namibia has not taken a clean break from some of the challenges faced in the past.
“For the direct procurement we probably have to do a whole procurement tracker on it in the future but yes there are potential red flags that are associated with it especially in relation to transparency.The current procurement system has not properly managed to deal with the challenges that were faced in the past,” Links said.
He was speaking at the launch of “Red Flags, Recommendations, Reforms”, a new publication unpacking the findings of the 2025, Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems, (MAPS) assessment.
The current Procurement Tracker released by IPPR highlights the systemic weaknesses in Namibia’s public procurement framework and offers evidence-based recommendations for reform.
Links poked holes in the different issues troubling the public procurement system including poor management of the system , maintaining accountability and integrity with the procurement system and lack of credible data on the procurement system.
The tracker shows that only 40 percent of public institutions submitted their procurement plans to the Public Procurement Unit (PPU) in the 2025/26 financial year.
Links says the failure by public institutions to meet plan submissions are a cause for concern for a country that wants to move forward with transparency and open bidding processes.
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