Kae Matundu Tjiparuro
“Govt rejects N$54m per stadium proposal,” read a headline in one of the local English dailies on Monday just after the country’s 36th independence anniversary.
Yours Truly Ideologically cannot but highly commend the Prime Minister for putting his feet down in this regard by rejecting the proposal. The N$54m is simply four or five times more than the amount which the government has budgeted for a stadium. Currently the government has only allocated for the initial building of only 28 stadia countrywide, two in each of the country’s 14 regions. Heaven knows how many and how long it would take to build more stadiums if one stadium had not been inflated to a punitive price of N$54m per stadium.
By all wonders, the office of the prime minister was diligent enough to reject the proposal. But this is not all that must be, and an end to this saga.
In the first place, one does not know how the proposal, given its high inflation, managed to reach the Office of the Prime Minister. One would have thought along the way, before it reached this office, someone in the chain, starting with the Roads Contractor Company (RCC), would have detected the anomaly and interrogated it.
If only to prevent the risk of oversight at the level of the office of the prime minister that ordinarily may not be expected to deal with such matters, be it for lack of time and/or the necessary expertise in this regard. It is baffling, for that matter, how the RCC is now involved in the construction of stadia.
But if, as it seems, surely there are many entities in the chain of such a project through which the proposal must have been filtered before ultimately reaching the office of the prime minister, where it was rejected and stopped. What use are the other entities in the chain and it cannot be only a matter of Yours Truly Ideologically’s conjecture that indeed they are there. Not to mention the RCC itself; hearing of its involvement in this matter, one could not think of a surprise resurrection.
Indeed, we are in that biblical period, I guess? The RRC’s history and record, to say the least, are chequered ones. A relic of Namibia’s dustbin of mismanagement, if not outright misappropriation and squandering of public resources, as it has proved itself.
Only for its ghost to have now been resurrected to be lingering over the construction of stadia, at least the concerned ones which were the subject of the newspaper article, if not all 28 ones envisaged for the 14 regions, two in each.
It is by no means an easy fit in terms of the budget and financially for the country in this era of sky-high unemployment, especially among what should be the most productive and economically active sector of society: the youth. To see funds so earmarked being syphoned off through devious means, among them is cost inflation. Most recently, the prime minister has also been on the national broadcaster questioning the renovations of a public health facility in the northeast regions of the country, which have yet to be completed despite the contractor being given a second chance to complete them but once again failing. This certainly does not auger well for the much-needed rehabilitation of public facilities.
All too often the government has been in the dock for its seeming inability to take care of public properties. But it seems other entities on which the government is very much relying are not and have not been coming to the party. Like the entity in the building of the stadia. More stadia stand to be erected in the 121 constituencies of the country. But if the latest reports of cost inflation are anything to go by, the country certainly has its work cut out for itself in this regard.
This is indeed not only a wake-up call for the new administration that has been promising business unusual but also a rude and crude reminder that the business unusual mantra may be easier said than done. Who knows, these are and may be signs of deeper things and an entrenched rot out there among the usual suspect contractors. Necessitating a hands-on approach by not only the government but all who are involved. The government is envisaging this project for the good of our communities; it thus behoves and is incumbent upon all of us, not necessarily as a matter of national pride, but simply for the prosperity and posterity of our respective communities.
Yours Truly ideologically does not know what ordinarily may interest the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), but the case of the stadia construction and the reported cost inflation cannot be taken for granted and/or at face value. This is simply an automatic candidate for investigation by the ACC. The Ministry of Education, Youth, Sport and Culture is the political driver of this stadium construction project. The red flags, to say the least, are flagging. So it must simply nip the obvious avarice and greed in the bud. Because besides the obvious corruption, it is and must be driven by none other than greed and avarice. Which, in Namibia, is and has been endemic, edging towards an epidemic, if not already an epidemic that we would wish to admit.
Until and when the necessary measures are taken against the suspects and as a matter of urgency, the authorities cannot but quickly not only act against the suspect entity, but somewhere along the chain there are those who must account. Between the Ministry of Education and the RCC. With the blacklisting of the entity suspected to be contemplated in the meantime.
