Road tenders are above board - Lutombi
ROADS Authority CEO Conrad Lu- tombi has refuted allegations that he is unpatriotic because government road construction tenders are awarded to Chinese-owned companies by the RA.
He was responding to the allegations in an interview with Nampa on Friday, after Landless People’s Movement (LPM) leader, Bernadus Swartbooi, accused him of being unpatriotic for the awarding of government tenders worth billions of dollars to Chineseowned companies.
Swartbooi said LPM would not allow Lutombi to be appointed CEO of the City of Windhoek, where he was interviewed for the position few weeks ago, because he will continue the same practices there. Swartbooi was referring to the Chinese company called Zhong Mei Engineering Group, which was awarded a N$1 billion project to construct a 21-kilometre road between Windhoek and the Hosea Kutako International Airport by the Roads Authority last week.
“He is one of the most unpatriotic Namibians you can ever find. Government is complaining about liquidity, but you have been exporting billions to China, cash. The same Lutombi was on the basis of a good interview now to become the best person to be appointed City of Windhoek CEO. No, we don’t want Lutombi, any decision around Lutombi, we will oppose it on the basis that he is an unpatriotic person in the national duty he was given at Roads Authority. We
can’t have an unpatriotic person promoted to another key institution,” said Swartbooi.
However, when contacted for comment, Lutombi said he is not responsible for awarding tenders, because tenders are awarded through the public procurement process.
“You must tell him that Lutombi does not award tenders. There is a process that is followed. It is unfortunate to have a person like Swartbooi making allegations like that, without verifying facts. He can familiarise himself with the Procurement Act. The tender he is referring to was an agreement between the government of Namibia and the government of China, and it was agreed that Chinese companies are the ones to participate and employ Namibians,” said Lutombi.