Government is planning to outsource the management of its residential properties spread across the country, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works and Transport, Willem Goeiemann, confirmed this week.
This comes as a notice was placed in local newspapers last week, calling for submissions.
“This is a call to experienced and professional companies and individual consultants to submit bids for proposals on the outsourcing of government residential flats for the Ministry of Works and Transport,” the notice read.
Goeiemann said a decision to outsource the management of government flats was taken 10 years ago.
“We are merely trying to implement that decision. We are not selling any flats or evicting anyone,” he said.
“Government flats are a source of pain. So many people stay in there, but we don’t even know who they are.”
Goeiemann said the consultant who will be selected via a tender process, will be required to come up with a database that will reveal the number of flats, the tenants and when they were built, among other details.
“For the past 28 years, we have failed to maintain the flats, it’s a big problem. Based on the information which the consultant will gather, we will eventually take the plan to Cabinet for approval. It is a long-term thing,” Goeiemann said.
He said the ministry is not mandated to sell the flats because it needs authorisation from Cabinet.
“I am just following up on what was supposed to have been done a long time ago. We will submit it to treasury and Cabinet, and they will make the final decision.
“The consultant will tell us exactly, what needs to be done, because some of the flats are run down. The consultant will tell us whether they need to be rehabilitated or upgraded.”
He said the consultant wills also advise the ministry on the amount of rent to be paid.
Goeiemann added that although the ministry was aware that some people were staying in the flats illegally, the ministry did not have the mandate to evict them.
This contradicts what the ministry said in March when it said it was working on a plan to remove government workers illegally living in State-owned accommodation while paying no rent and with no authorisation to do so.
The Windhoek Observer reported at the time that the campaign will firstly target illegal tenants from government houses and flats in Windhoek.
The ministry had said there are a number of civil servants or family members of former civil servants and others who illegally moved into government owned flats without following the correct procedures.
A report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts in 2015 stated that government owns about 270 houses and 1000 flat units in Windhoek, and 75 and 39 houses at Oshakati and Walvis Bay, respectively.