The Central Procurement Board of Namibia has awarded 37 procurement contracts to the value of N$1.4 billion between April and September this year.

The Acting Chairperson of the board, Amon Ngavetene, revealed this at a media briefing in Windhoek.

The 37 contracts were awarded to different companies, of which 36 were local companies and one international company.

Ngavetene also revealed that the board currently manages 72 procurement contracts. 

"We can say that a total of 8.3% of those contracts have exceeded expectations, meaning they have been implemented without issues. 45% of those contracts are on track, meaning the progress speaks to timelines and we only had one contract that was determined terminated for non-performance and accounts for 1.4% as it is the only one."

In addition, the board received and approved three variation orders and price increases to the value of N$14 million. 

A variation order is a change in the scope of work from that originally stated in the contract.

He says the board has noticed a decrease in variation orders, something that can be attributed to the way in which public entities plan, manage, and estimate contract costs. 

"For the period under review, we only approved 3 contract extensions to the value of N$204 million. Overall, compared to the same period last year, there is a decrease from nine contracts that were extended last year to three this year. The issue of contract extension also speaks to this. If you have fewer resources for contract extensions, it means there is an improvement in terms of planning."

During the period under review, the board approved six individual procurement plans (IPPs) to the value of N$513 million.

He explained that the value of IPPs submitted dropped by N$116 million dollars, compared to the same period in the previous financial year.

"We probably need to find out why there is a declining trend in the submission of procurement requests from PEs, which could be attributed to the poor performance of the economic outlook of the country."

Four bids to the value of N$74 million were cancelled, while they only approved one direct procurement compared to six direct procurements in the previous financial year.