A delay in payment by the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service to a local sportswear brand has led to Team Namibia traveling to the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Games without official attire.

The 10th edition of the AUSC Region 5 Games are taking place in Lilongwe, Malawi from 02 until 11 December 2022, with 10 southern African countries competing in 12 sports codes.

Namibia’s team of 70 athletes and 32 officials started departing for Malawi in different groups last Saturday and had to attend a welcoming ceremony organised by the Malawian Local Organising Committee on Wednesday without their national colours.

In an interview with Nampa on Thursday, Director of Sport in the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service, Jo-ann Manuel said they are hopeful that the attire will be delivered to them before the opening ceremony on Saturday.

“We only paid our supplier on 27 November 2022 and he then flew to India to get the attire. The last time I spoke to him he managed to get everything apart from shoes, which will be delivered at a later stage,” said Manuel.

Manuel explained that three suppliers were told to submit their quotations to the ministry’s procurement committee, but two of the suppliers submitted their documents directly to the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC).

“Our executive director told us to inform them to submit their quotes through the right procedure but they did not, and the only supplier that submitted through the right procedure also had two documents missing, which led to the tender being cancelled the first time,” she said.

The sports director said the ministry then re-advertised the tender and only 6mo9 Sports Namibia, who were rejected the first time around due to missing documents, applied with all the right documentation.

“Team Namibia’s participation in these games falls under the midterm budget and that money has not yet been released. We took money from other budgets to pay the supplier. Athletes and officials were only paid 45 per cent of their allowances, while government officials only got 30 per cent,” Manuel said, adding that the directorate of general service paid the participation fees for team Namibia and the ministry used its security money to pay for flight tickets.

Meanwhile, 6mo9 Sports Namibia Chief Executive Officer Alfred Ndyenge told this agency on Wednesday that he could not deliver as planned due to the delay in payment, but he is hopeful that everything will be delivered on Saturday.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency