THE Central Procurement Board of Namibia (CPBN) says the tender they advertised for the procurement of an insurance brass padlock, microwave, kitchen utensils, top freezer and urn is not improper.
CPBN spokesperson Johanna Kambala yesterday responded to public criticism of the tender for the board’s offices. The procurement board put out four different tenders on utensils on Tuesday on their website. The deadline for submissions is 25 April.
“It is not wrong to put out a bid for a microwave, else you will be unfair towards any other person who could have supplied you with a microwave,” she said.
Some members of the public, however, questioned the tender on social media.
“I am hoping it was a typo and that they meant more than one ..sic… like a mass purchase,” commented @lordlydavid.
“This really could have been an email through Request for Quotation sent directly to suppliers, even if the Act allows for it. What a mess and waste of time and resources,” wrote @crazynellz.
Kambala said the CPBN was complying with the Procurement Act on the spending of public funds.
“As CPBN, we cannot just stand up and go to Game and say I want this microwave. No. You are against the Procurement Act at the end of the day. People who go out and procure that way are doing it wrongly, because you need to put out a bid – whether it is one microwave or two microwaves,” she said.
Kambala said the act does not allow for organisations to use petty cash to procure small items.
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“The act does not say you can take petty cash and buy items. It says even if you are buying a microwave, you need to invite people to bid for that microwave. It’s just that other entities are doing it wrong. That is why you don’t see their bidding requests,” she said.
Asked about the value of the tender, Kambala said they are “small items for office use. This is not a big tender that is used to public entities because the people do not understand the mandate of the CPBN”.
Kambala said if the CPBN does not invite the public to bid, they would be seen as corrupt.
“They will ask how we procured the microwave and say we went to buy it from our friends. We want to be fair and transparent,” she said.
She referred members of the public who wish to know the value of the tender to bidding documents, which are available on request.
