The Kavango East Regional Council has distanced itself from a controversial tender which saw the education ministry splash N$528 000 for the procurement of 240 mattresses for a school in the region.

Put simply, each mattress cost taxpayers N$2 200 in a tender to supply school furniture and laboratory equipment, which has caused a stir in the public domain.

Now, the region’s chief regional officer (CRO) Matheus Singambwe, has come out guns blazing, saying the regional council “was not involved in any way in the procurement process of these furniture.

“The whole procurement process was handled by the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture at the head office through its procurement structure,” Singambwe said in the statement.

He acknowledged that in some instances, the ministry delegates some tenders to be handled at the regional level.

“It should be placed on record that the ministry at times decides to perform the delegated function without consulting the council and this is one of those the ministry has decided to use its own discretion to deviate from the provisions of the Decentralisation Enabling Act, Decentralisation Policy and its Manual Operating Procedures,” he stated.

Substandard

The items in question were delivered at the school on 11 December 2023 and the regional council, Singambwe said, was not informed immediately. He also claimed that the items that the ministry bought for the school were of poor quality.

“Only on the 20th of December 2023, the directorate of education was then asked telephonically to go certify that the items were delivered as per the delivery note without any specifications given,” he said.

There appears to be more than meets the eye.

“The regional directorate staff who went to certify the delivery did report back to the head office of the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, telephonically, that the quality of furniture delivered was not satisfactory of which pictures of the items (furniture) were sent to the head office of education accordingly,” the CRO said.

The beneficiary of the said mattresses was the Imarwa Ithete Secondary School, in a tender that sent shockwaves across the spectrum, with certain quarters accusing the ministry of wasting already scarce public resources.

Down-their-throats

According to the regional administrator, their region is the only beneficiary of the procured items, but which “had no involvement in the procurement process and has no influence in the whole process”.

But this is not surprising, as the ministry’s head office is aware of the myriad of their needs.

What is, however, strange is: “The only observation is that indeed this procurement was not done in good faith considering the cost involved versus the long list of regional priority needs… It is painting a bad picture on one of the poorest regions in the country yet spending the reported rate/amount on furniture.”

Above board

When responding to questions around the tender in question last month, ministry of education’s executive director, Sanet Steenkamp said everything was beyond reproach.

“We confirm that the said purchase order (PO) was indeed issued by this ministry for the supply and delivery of seven school items, namely 90 learners’ chairs, 90 desks, three teachers’ chairs and tables, 33 science laboratory stools, 120 steel double Decker’s Bunk beds, and 240 mattresses,” she said in a statement.

She added: “Having outlined the above, we would like to assure the public that all relevant legal processes as per the Public Procurement Act were fully observed, leading to the award of the above-mentioned bid.”

At the time of going to print yesterday the ministry did not yet respond to a request for fresh comment.

Nictus

Following last month’s New Era report that partly lifted the veil on the transaction, upmarket furniture retailer Nictus decided to enter the fray.

Nictus said it could have charged the government way less than what it paid to Point Media CC, the entity which supplied 90 learners’ chairs, 90 learners’ tables, three teachers’ desks and chairs, 33 science laboratory tools, 120 steel bunk beds and 240 mattresses.

The government was charged N$1 200 per learner chair, N$1 500 per learner table, N$2 700 per teacher desk, N$2 500 per teacher chair, N$4 000 for each laboratory tool, N$5 500 per bunk bed, and N$2 200 per mattress.

Reacting to a New Era story, Nictus’ managing director, Francois Wahl, expressed his dismay about the way public funds were expended.

“Feel free to forward our quote as an estimate to Sanet Steenkamp, so they may consider asking Nictus for quotes in future,” Wahl said, referring to an attached quote.

He continued: “In general furniture companies can quote on furniture items, when a tender is issued with a mix of products like furniture and lab equipment it makes tenders difficult, since it is two different specialised fields. I will never be able to quote accurately on lab equipment but can confidently say we will be best priced on furniture.”

As such, Wahl said: “The amount for lab equipment on the quote is therefore just an estimate based on the circulating quote from Point Media.”

Based on Nictus’ quotation, a learner chair would have cost taxpayers N$605.68 each, totalling N$54 511.38.

For learners’ tables, the ministry would have paid N$1 366.20 for each, totalling N$122 958.

A Rickstacker [teacher’s] chair with arms is priced at N$1 199.22 at Nictus, meaning three cost N$10 542.51.

Meanwhile, Nictus priced its teacher’s tables at N$3 514.17 each.

At Nictus, learner mattresses cost N$1 100 each, while each troy steel double bunk beds cost N$4 098.60.

The ministry would have paid N$1 079 441.55 for the furniture and lab equipment, based on the Nictus quotation.

When juxtaposed with what the ministry paid to Point Media’s N$1 815 390 the ministry would have saved N$735 948.54 based on New Era’s calculations.

-emumbuu@nepc.com.na