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AFFIRMATIVE Repositioning (AR) movement leader Job Amupanda has accused the National Youth Council (NYC) of awarding a tender to a Zimbabwean consultant, which he claimed was unadvertised.

However, NYC spokesperson Brian Prince says the hiring of Lavenham Investmnent Cc as the consultant was done according to Section 32 (2) of the Public Procurement Act of 2015.

He says a request for sealed quotations as directed by the policy was used in the process of hiring the consultant.

Amupanda took to social media recently, saying the youth council travelled to Zimbabwe to source a consultant whom they allegedly paid N$500 000 to facilitate a meeting at the Windhoek Country Club and Casino on Saturday.

He claimed there are no terms of reference in the contract.

“What’s worse, there was no advert for this tender,” Amupanda said.

Prince says: “The NYC was transformed from being established by a Cabinet policy to becoming a state-owned enterprise in 2015. Five years after the transition … the NYC is reviewing the transformation to determine whether it is meeting its mandate …”

Prince says reviewing the strategic plan involves assessing the NYC’s current position and developing a new one.

“Therefore, the N$529 000 is for the mentioned deliverables, which will run for over a year,” he says.

“We would like to set the record straight that Lavenham Investment CC is a Namibian-registered company,” Prince says.

The NYC and Lavenham Investment CC entered into an agreement on 10 June.

Part of the agreement, which The Namibian has seen, reads: “The council hereby contracts the consultant to provide the services on a non-exclusive basis as an independent contractor, and the consultant hereby agrees to supply the services to the council, subject to the terms and conditions contained in this agreement.”

The agreement commenced on 13 June and is valid until 14 June next year.

The consultant was hired to review the youth body’s 2017-2022 strategic plan, and to develop a five-year integrated strategic plan.

The consultant also has to develop performance agreement management and execute management support through leadership and coaching.

Contacted for comment, minister of sport, youth and national service Agnes Tjongarero said the matter has reached her office.

“As a ministry, we requested the NYC on Friday last week to send us an explanation in writing of what happened. We still have not received a report from them,” she said.

The executive director of Lavenham Investments CC, Corlen Masunda, referred The Namibian to a press statement he released on Friday.

The statement says: “We received an invitation from the NYC to tender for the development of a five-year strategic plan, the development of performance agreements, and leadership coaching. This tender is for one year.”

Masunda says like any other commercial entity, they tendered and were advised that they were the successful candidate.

“Pursuant to the notification, we signed a valid contract. The N$100 000 we invoiced was for preparatory work, including stakeholder engagement as per the agreed contract,” he said.

Masunda says they are a law-abiding organisation.