The Board of Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) and its management have taken note, with dissatisfaction, the rumours being mooted around the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) project of Namibia.

Specific allegations are that the figure is inflated from N$30 million to N$70 million, that some form of foul play and impropriety is at play and that the Communications Regulator of Namibia (CRAN) has reported the matter to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for investigation.

As chairperson of the Board of Directors of NBC for the past two years now, I wish to state the following without any fear of contradiction that nothing could be further from the truth. We can confirm that NBC ran an open and transparent public tender from 25 March 2011 to 19 April 2011. The four companies that submitted bids considered are Broadcast & Installation Engineering, Multichoice Namibia Limited, Harambe Technologies and Huawei Technologies International.

The Huawei’s technical and financial offers were accepted and a further N$10 million discount negotiated off the original offer price. The indicative price was N$376 796 716.44 at the exchange rate that prevailed at the time.

We can confirm that CRAN or the Ministry of ICT were not responsible for any reports to the ACC or the rumours that commenced last week. The Board is further satisfied that management has applied the most appropriate and tested standards of governance in managing this tender and the process afterwards.

What we at NBC, at both board and management level, want to stress is the opportunity that DTT will present to Namibians of all walks of life. I assure the Namibian nation that every cent of the Namibia taxpayers’ money to be invested in this project will be carefully managed and put to the use that it is intended for.