Central Procurement Board of Namibia (CPBN) board chairperson Patrick Swartz has rejected claims that there was no fairness in the latest agency recruitment processes.
He said the agency exercises best recruitment practises and provides equal employment chances to all Namibians, in line with the existing laws of the country.
CPBN has come under heavy criticism following its recent announcement on social media of its new 14 recruits. Of the 14, only one male official made the cut while the majority were perceived to be from one ethnic group.
This led the National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman to look into the appointments that the party felt lacked ethnic diverse. Also, an online petition was lodged challenging the recruitment process. However, Swartz at a press conference last Friday said both the allegations were unfounded as the outcome of the recruitment process was rather unintended and all Namibians were allowed to apply for the advertised positions. “We wish to reject the claims that there was no fairness in the recruitment process in terms of gender representation as the majority of candidates who applied were women, a situation that we had no control of,” said Swartz.
He said the agency’s focus was to attract and appoint qualified candidates who can contribute to the mission and vision of CPBN in executing its stated mandate. Swartz said for the 14 vacancies, the agency received 429 applications and from that number, 126 were male while 303 were female.
“From that number, a total of 72 were shortlisted for the 14 positions which includes 14 males and 58 females, “he further explained.
“Looking at these statistics, it is evident that the majority of the applicants were female representing 71% of the applicants while male were represented by a mere 29% of the applicants,” noted Swartz
Ombudsman John Walters recently confirmed to New Era that he received a request from Nudo to look into CPBN recruitment process termed by the opposition as “unfair recruitment process.”
Walters told this publication at the time that he has assigned an investigative officer to deal with the case and as soon as the investigation is done, he will report to Kauandenge with the outcome. “This is nothing new, such cases are being reported on a daily basis at our office and thus we will address it in the same manner we address others,” Walters said.
– ktjitemisa@nepc.com.na