The Construction Industries Federation of Namibia remains concerned about the domestic construction industry. This, the federation stated, is because many government projects over the last years were abandoned before completion and the quality of workmanship on many of the projects were regarded as very poor and below desired standards.
Accordingly, the CIF wants to encourage buyers of building and construction services to be extremely careful and prudent when selecting service providers and awarding contracts accordingly. The organisation points out this is as a result of the absence of a statutory regulatory body, such as a construction council; and highlights related disadvantages; as well as recommends that in the interim, buyers only appoint contractors that are CIF members, since they have to adhere to the federation’s code of conduct.
“With the lack of a regulatory body in the construction sector, such as a construction council, there is not a single statutory body that has the mandate to monitor and police the performance of contractors in this sector. With the absence of such a body, buyers of building and construction services – mostly government authorities, are not in the position to accurately evaluate tenders before their respective awards,” reads a CIF statement.
The CIF has since 2006 lobbied government for the establishment of a construction council. The federation has cautioned that with no statutory regulatory body in place, tenders are awarded to contractors who do not have experience and therefore are not in the position to complete the projects; tenders are often awarded to Namibian ‘tenderpreneurs’, who subcontract to other contractors, many of them foreign companies.
If a contractor has not completed a project or delivered below par work, they often just change and operate under a different business name; many business owners create more than one – often up to three companies – only for tendering purposes; and the occurrence of nepotism and potentially fraud, is much more probable in an unregulated environment.
“Without an appropriate regulatory body in the construction sector, the scope for fraudulent and corruptive practices is much bigger, which can lead to a very inefficient public procurement system,” said Bärbel Kirchner, CEO of the CIF.
Kirchner added that with a construction council in place, all businesses operating in this sector will have to be registered with the council. Details that would have to be disclosed upon registration include ownership, citizenship, previous work undertaken; as well as criteria such as turnover and cash flow, qualification and size of the workforce. Essentially, these criteria will ultimately be determined by the council itself. Based on this, companies would be categorised and projects could be sized so as to also meet the developmental needs of businesses in the sector.
Said Kirchner: “We really cannot understand why after 17 years of lobbying our government, there is still no council. We were very hopeful that after the pledge was made by government at the Namibian Investment Summit in 2019, organised by the High Level Panel of the Economy, that by end of the financial year; 28 February 2020, the bill would have been tabled in parliament and eventually promulgated… Not having a council is essentially a very wasteful use of government resources, and ultimately taxpayers’ monies, as unqualified businesses are getting contracts.”
She continued that at the same time, the procurement processes are “incredibly long” and therefore very costly. She pointed out that with a register of prequalified contractors, a lot of bureaucracy can be eliminated, thereby saving time for both civil servants and contractors.
“As a stakeholder in the construction sector, we want to see that the sector is optimally regulated. This is in the interest of the development of country, the development of our sector and ultimately, will help to better utilise scarce financial resources. However, in the absence of that, we want to call everyone that is buying or funding building and construction services, to establish first whether the service provider is a member of the CIF,” said Kirchner.