The World Bank’s lead procurement specialist, Knut Leopold, says the country’s public procurement strategy will provide the basis for transforming public procurement in Namibia from an administrative function with focus on compliance to a more strategic function with focus on value for money and better public service delivery
“This is very important as the strategy will provide the basis for transforming the Public Procurement Unit (PPU) in Namibia from an administrative function. On a professional level, we commend the work of PPU, but at the same time we found out that PPU needs much more financial and human resources,” he said during the validation of the Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems (MAPS) in Namibia.
Leopold added that it is important to strengthen the mandate of public procurement institutions, as leading agency units on procurement would require more resources to operate efficiently in the future.
Currently, the PPU under the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises together with the World Bank and African Development Bank, are reviewing the MAPS Assessment validation draft.
The review is done to provide the country with information it can use to monitor the performance of its system and evaluate the success of the reform initiatives in improving procurement performance.
The Assessment Team has completed the report’s initial draft and plans. The team discussed with key stakeholders the key findings, gaps, recommendations and additional feedback, confirming the understanding and seeking any missing information/data.
The new version of MAPS, published in 2018 and is being validated, is an internationally accepted system that aims to catalyse and accelerate the implementation of modern, efficient, sustainable and more inclusive public procurement systems.
It focuses on assessing value for money, fairness, transparency and good governance.
It was further established that the Public Procurement Unit in Namibia functions more administratively, such as filing paper and providing information without much oversight.
This is in addition to a lack of discipline in providing information data despite the existence of e-procurement, though it still needs to be strengthened.
The World Bank consultants also recommended that it is important to certify the availability of funds before commencing any procurement processes.
