The Tender Board of Namibia Act 16 of 1996 has been repealed and replaced with the Public Procurement Act 15 of 2015 (‘Act’) that came into effect on 1 April 2017. The Public Procurement Act is the only Act which now regulates tender processes in Namibia, where the State or any Governmental organisation is a contracting party. Nevertheless, all tender contracts which were procured before the commencement of this Act, will continue to be regulated and administered by the Tender Board of Namibia Act.

The objective of the Act is to regulate the procurement of goods, works and services of the State and to oversee the hiring and disposal of public entity assets. Public entities are defined broadly in the Act as any Government institutions, including entities to whom the Government has provided funding or to whom the Government has granted an exclusive license for the sale of goods or the provision of services.

Furthermore, the Act establishes numerous authoritative panels that oversee bidding processes. One such panel, is the Central Procurement Board of Namibia. The new procurement board is responsible for setting up Procurement Committees. These Procurement Committees in turn, provide for the establishment of Bid Evaluation Committees which ensure that suitable and fair procurement methods are utilised in tender processes. In addition to the Central Procurement Board, Challenge and Review Panels have been implemented with the aim of providing relief to bidders or suppliers who unfairly have not been awarded procurement contracts.

Importantly, the Act aims to give preference in the bidding process to certain types of classes of tenders. Notwithstanding the fact that the Act aims to promote Namibian produced services and manufactured goods, the Act also seeks to empower certain types of persons.

The Act implements a policy by which it empowers Namibian citizens who have in the past been economically and educationally disadvantaged. A public entity may, in line with such policy, limit public participation in advertised tender processes to Namibian Citizens only and to businesses incorporated in Namibia of which at least 30 percent of the equity is owned by previously disadvantaged natural persons.

The Act is a transformational reform tool to be used in the public procurement process which will result in more State accountability, transparency, the reduction of over-inflated tender prices and moreover will seek to empower specific sections of the Namibian population who have in the past been economically disenfranchised.

Should you have any legal enquiries and if you would like to learn more about this newly enacted law, please do contact the ESI team and they will gladly provide you with expert analysis and advice.

ESI a member of the DLA Piper Africa Group, an alliance of leading independent law firms working together in association with DLA Piper across Africa.

Originally published in an ESI client update dated June 2017.