Staff Reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NAMIBIA experienced a shortage of grain since 2022 due to a combination of factors, including severe drought and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, which disrupted global production and shipment of essential agricultural commodities such as maize and wheat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was said by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform in a statement refuting a report by the Namibian Sun newspaper claiming that the Ministry’s Executive Director, Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata, was under scrutiny for authorising payments totalling N$143 million to Growmax Fertiliser JV Ziara Energy (Pty) Ltd without a public tender and exceeding the Ministry\u2019s internal procurement threshold of N$25 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry said that it never awarded a tender to Growmax Fertiliser JV Ziara Energy (Pty) Ltd valued at N$143 million, as claimed in the newspaper report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry also said that it issued a statement prior to the publication of the erroneous article clarifying the allegations, but the journalist ignored the facts as presented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry explained that it awarded two distinct Emergency Procurement contracts to Growmax Fertiliser in 2022, valued at N$18 million and N$38 million respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the statement, the Namibian government responded to the emerging crisis by directing the Agriculture Ministry to place the Green Schemes under production while the leasing process continued simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry said:
“At the time of this Cabinet decision, there was no budget allocated to the Ministry to perform the assigned task at the Green Schemes. The Ministry only managed to secure funding during November 2022, following the approval of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework. By then, the summer cropping season was already underway. Consequently, the Ministry invoked Section 33(3)(b) of the Public Procurement Act (No. 15 of 2015) to proceed with Emergency Procurement. This decision was taken to ensure timely acquisition and supply of agricultural inputs, as any delay would have resulted in poor crop yields and posed a serious threat to national food security.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the course of implementation, it became evident that executing both Cabinet directives concurrently was impractical without a reliable and sufficient supply of key agricultural inputs, namely seeds, fertilisers, and chemicals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“To address this, the Ministry’s management resolved in 2023 to contract suppliers for the provision of these inputs over a 36-month period. Each contract was capped at the public entity procurement threshold of N$25 million, in accordance with the Public Procurement Act of 2015 (as amended). The 36-month contracts awarded by MAFWLR in December 2023 were advertised through an Open National Bidding process, where over five companies participated. Three emerged as the successful bidders.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The emergency procurements followed a Cabinet decision terminating the institutional arrangement between the Ministry and AgriBusDev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decision mandated the revitalisation of the Green Schemes by outsourcing them to the private sector \u201cvoetstoots\u201d (as-is), through a competitive leasing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It is important to note that the Ministry assumed direct management of the Green Schemes in late 2022, with the clear understanding that all schemes would be outsourced in their current state to private operators, in line with the aforementioned Cabinet directive. In the same year, as the Ministry focused on production activities at the Green Schemes, the following projects were promoted to potential investors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, only Uvhungu Vhungu Dairy and the ORIP succeeded in generating viable interest from the private sector.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the Cabinet directive to lease out the Green Schemes, the Ministry did not receive budget provision for Green Scheme-related activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry reiterated that it has acted in full compliance with procurement regulations and that the apparent increase in cumulative expenditure is not due to irregularity or breach but reflects legitimate operational scale-up and responsible agricultural support in line with national priorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Staff Reporter NAMIBIA experienced a shortage of grain since 2022 due to a combination of factors, including severe drought and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, which disrupted global production and shipment of essential agricultural commodities such as maize and wheat. This was said by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":380643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-380642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n