Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Construction Industries Federation of Namibia (CIF) has expressed disappointment that local Namibian-owned contractors have been excluded from a road project under the supervision of the Roads Authority of Namibia (RA).
In December 2022, the RA 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 from the German government through the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW).
The RA has published a shortlist of successful bidders, which clearly shows that no Namibian-owned contractors were selected. The RA justifies this selection by stating that only three Namibian-owned contractors had submitted bids, one of which was in a joint venture with a foreign company.
Bärbel Kirchner, Chief Executive Officer of the CIF, opposed this reasoning and stated that the RA and the KfW should have anticipated the low participation of Namibian-owned companies in the tender process.
She explained that Namibian-owned contractors were still restricted from participating due to the excessively stringent financial prequalification requirements and technical specifications, such as the volume of work and the use of a certain amount of stabilised recycled subbase (60,000 cubic metres).
“There is not a single Namibian contractor that has completed the prescribed amount of square meters/cubic metres per year. This demand is highly unrealistic, as there has never been such a demand of this magnitude in Namibia, not even from the Roads Authority as a client. This is effectively the reason why Namibian-owned contractors did not participate. The RA’s other excuse, that the prequalification requirements were in line with the procurement policies of the KfW, could have been altered. The CIF argues that both the KfW conditions and the local realities could have been taken into consideration. All that was needed was to break the project into smaller lots, allowing local Namibian-owned contractors to participate,” she argued.
The RA justifies its decision by stating that the final selected contractor will have to subcontract 25% of the work to local contractors.
“The CIF is understandably frustrated because what is 25% local could have been 100% local. What more can be said? We have engaged with the authorities. Both the KfW and the RA, including their senior executives, were fully aware of the implications, but they chose not to make any significant changes to the requirements,” Kirchner said.
She concluded that Namibian businesses are once again facing layoffs.
“Our own contractors are being undermined and disregarded by our own government, the Roads Authority. The question is how our own authorities can fail our people who desperately need opportunities and job creation. We are talking about poverty eradication and employment generation. This action directly contradicts these policies. Our authorities are well aware of what is happening, and it is an insult to every honest Namibian. Blaming the conditions of the financiers is an attempt to shift the blame. This makes our senior decision-makers victims rather than leaders. As this situation doesn’t make any sense, a thorough investigation into these procurement practices is warranted,” Kirchner concluded.
The CIF has been lobbying the Namibian Government for many years to provide support to locally-owned businesses.
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