New investment arm hit by ‘jobs for friends’ claims

JEMIMA BEUKES



WINDHOEK

Namibian Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDP) CEO Nangula Uaandja says there is nothing wrong with handpicking and dishing out tenders to her former PwC Namibia colleagues now that she heads the public-funded investment promotion agency.

In recent weeks, there have been claims of nepotism and favouritism regarding the recruitment of staff members as well as the process that led to picking a management consulting firm for the agency, which was established recently to bolster and attract much-needed investment to Namibia.

In fact, staffers who worked at the Namibia Investment Centre under the trade ministry have bemoaned being overlooked for vacancies at the new entity.

Information obtained by Namibian Sun narrates how Uaandja, by her own admittance, recently handpicked former colleagues she worked with at PwC Namibia for jobs and consultancy gigs without following any public procurement guidelines.

In a detailed response to questions sent to her earlier this week, Uaandja said it is no coincidence that her former colleagues were recruited, since PWC employees possess “broad experience and skills and, therefore, are expected to occupy spaces in many similar Namibian institutions”.

The ties

So far, Uaandja employed Jessica Hauuanga, who was her former personal assistant at PwC.

She also contracted the services of Quest Consulting, a consortium founded by her former subordinate Ndeyapo Shilongo - for N$900 000 - to provide management consulting services.

Other persons of interest are Florence Amuenje and Ndapewa Hangula, also a former manager who worked at PwC under Uaandja, who is the current CEO of August 26 Manufacturing. According to her LinkedIn profile, she is also the senior managing consultant at Quest Consulting.

Amuenje, on the other hand, runs TransfoCoaching, an agency tasked by Quest Consulting to recruit the NIPDP’s executive team. She too was Uaandja’s colleague at PwC.

Task force

According to Uaandja, a task force chaired by herself was set up with officials from several ministries to help her with the operationalisation of the investment promotion agency.

“The task force, at my request, afforded me permission to headhunt one staff member and to source the services of a management consulting firm who would give me support in the execution of my duties at the new investment board, given that the board did not have any staff yet. These activities ended in the appointments of Jessica Hauuanga and Quest Consulting respectively,” she said.

Uaandja added that Hauuanga was never her assistant and instead managed the “people in my office”.

She added that the search for a managing consulting firm was not done through the normal tendering processes, instead a ‘word of mouth’ approach was used where companies were asked to submit their bids.

“Almost like a close bid,” she said.

Three companies were considered, of which Quest Consulting, according to Uaandja, was the cheapest with a bid of N$900 000.

She added that the two other companies submitted bids of N$2.8 million and N$3.9 million respectively and also did not satisfy the ‘Namibianisation’ requirement.

“With Quest Consulting, all members are Namibians while the others had foreign nationals. Quest is 86% women representation and the other two stand at 30% and 14% respectively,” she said.

Above board

The CEO vehemently dismissed assertions that there was a conflict of interest and that she should have recused herself from a meeting discussing the decision to recruit Hauuanga and Quest Consulting.

“A full disclosure regarding my knowledge of two of the people from the tendering companies was made. The task force applied themselves, and Quest Consulting was duly appointed.

“I must clarify here that there are other service providers contracted in by Quest for this project... In light of this, the appointment of a consultant team that consists of people who have been previously associated with me was completely above board,” Uaandja said.

She added that the fact that the she has worked closely with the people in question has no bearing on who is recruited at NIPDB, as there are specific guidelines and criteria governing any such appointments.

“I am not conflicted. Definitely my close friends and family cannot be considered, but I cannot see the fact that I have worked with someone at PWC as conflict of interest. I am very objective; my career has demonstrated that over the years,” she said.