The Construction Industries Federation of Namibia (CIF) bemoans the fact that local Namibian-owned contractors have been side-lined on a road project under the auspices of the Roads Authority of Namibia (RA).
In December 2022, the RA had received bids for the prequalification to rehabilitate the 32 km road between Karibib and Usakos. This rehabilitation project (TR7/1) is financed by a loan by the German government through the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW).
The shortlist of successful bidders has been published by the RA; which clearly shows that no Namibian-owned contractors were selected.
“The RA justifies the skewed selection by stating that only three Namibian-owned contractors had submitted a bid, one of which tendered in joint venture with a foreign company. The fact that only three Namibian-owned companies had participated in the tender process should have been expected by the RA and the KfW. At least a month before the tender submission date, the CIF had approached the authority and requested a meeting so that the prequalification requirements would be reviewed. The RA only entertained the request for a meeting less than one week before the submission date,” CIF said in a statement.
Whilst indeed some of the requirements for the tender had been altered, the alterations that were introduced by the RA upon the request by the CIF, were insignificant and did not take into the consideration the requested changes of the CIF, the Federation further beamoned.
“The implications of that were very well known by the RA; i.e. that Namibian-owned contractors would still be restricted to participate. The financial prequalification requirements were too steep, as well as the technical requirements, which included certain volumes of works and a certain material; i.e. the use of 60 000 cubic metre of stabilised recycled subbase.
“There is not a single Namibian contractor that has covered the prescribed amount of square meters/cubic metres per year. This is a very unrealistic demand, because there has never been a demand of this magnitude in Namibia, not even from the Roads Authority as client. This was effectively, the reason why Namibian-owned contractors did not participate,” addes CIF.
The Federation also noted that the other excuse provided by the RA, is that the prequalification requirements were in line with the procurement policies of the KfW, which could not have been altered. However, the CIF claims that both the KfW conditions and the local realities could have been taken into considerations.
“All that was required was to change the size of the project by breaking into smaller lots. In this way, local Namibian-owned contractors would have been able to participate.
The RA, further justifies their decision by stating that final selected contractor will have to subcontract 25% of the work to local contractors. The CIF is justifiably annoyed, as what is 25% local when it could have been a 100% local.”
Ms Bärbel Kirchner, chief executive officer of the CIF: “What is there left to say? We have engaged the authorities. Both the KfW and the RA – and for that matter, the senior executives of the authority– were exactly aware of the implications. But they chose not to make any significant changes to the requirements.
“It is a sad state of affairs. We all know that no effort was made to effectively and deliberately create work for Namibian-owned contractors and their Namibian employees. As we speak, our businesses are busy with retrenchments again. Anyone that states 25% of the work will be subcontracted to local contractors and sells this as an achievement, is holding us for fools, not only the contractors but everyone that has a genuine interest in Namibia’s progress.
“Our own contractors are being undermined and ridiculed by our own government, the Roads Authority. The question is how our own authorities can let our people down, who desperately need to be engaged and create jobs. We are talking about the eradication of poverty and the creation of employment. This action is in direct contradiction with these policies. Our authorities know full well what is going on and it is an insult to every truthful Namibian. To say that these were the conditions of the financiers, is like washing one’s hand and effectively shifting the blame. That makes our senior decision makers victims and not leaders. As this really does not make any sense, one ought to have a serious investigation into these procurement practices”.
The CIF has been lobbying the Namibian Government for many years so that locally-owned businesses would be supported. This is in order to maintain capacities in the sector, and to further build on them.