The Windhoek High Court has indicated that Menzies Aviation’s application for oral evidence, in its protracted fight with Namibia Airports Company over the multi-million-dollar ground handling tender it lost out on, is not an abuse of court processes.
In a judgement delivered by Judge Eileen Rakow, the court said Menzies has raised a significant question that NAC needs to answer, whether the uninitialed financial documents of Paragon, which were uploaded on 1 May 2022 to the High Court’s eJustice, were the same ones that the company submitted to NAC for tendering purposes – and if so, did Paragon and NAC act in cahoots to upload an altered version after the defect was pointed out by Menzies?
Rakow said the issue of uninitialed documents was one of the reasons furnished by NAC on why it disqualified Menzies during the bidding process.
“It is clear that the referral sought is based on credible evidence, and it is simply not an abuse of process by an unscrupulous litigant,” said Rakow.
Thus, Menzies has made a case of why the court must not determine the matter without oral evidence.
The court postponed the matter to 16 April for the determination of a hearing date for oral evidence.
In this ongoing battle, Menzies has accused NAC of favouring the joint venture between Paragon and JV Ethiopian Airlines during the tendering process, despite discrepancies, including forgery in their tender application.
The joint venture between Paragon Investment and JV Ethiopia was awarded the ground handling tender by NAC in December 2021.
In this pending review application before the High Court, Menzies wants the court to declare that NAC is a category one public entity and in terms of the law may not handle a bidding process of a tender that exceeds N$25 million.
According to Menzies, the tender handled by NAC and awarded to the joint venture exceeds the threshold, suggesting the Central Procurement Board of Namibia should have handled the bidding process.
The company also wants the court to review and set aside NAC’s decision to declare its bid invalid because it failed to initial all its pages and certify its registration documents.
Furthermore, to set aside NAC’s decision to award the joint venture tender and disqualify it.
Apart from the decisions to be reviewed, Menzies wants section 4(2) of the Public Procurement Act, 15 of 2015, declared unconstitutional.
The company has been providing cargo and handling services at Hosea Kutako International Airport since 2014.
The contract has been extended twice and came to an end on 30 June 2022 by a flux of time.
However, they refused to leave and were ordered finally by the Supreme Court to vacate no later than 13 June 2023.
– mamakali@nepc.com.na
Caption:
Grill… Menzies Aviation will now get to question NAC on the tendering process.
Photo: File