The Roads Authority is challenging a decision of the Public Procurement Review Panel to have various tenders for the maintenance of tarred roads handled by the Central Procurement Board of Namibia.
The RA is adamant that the individual tenders do not exceed the N$35 million thresholds as they have been divided into a number of sub-tenders with an average value of about N$10 million each.
In June, the review panel concluded that the individual value of the five tenders as advertised by RA in September 2021 were above the N$35 million public entities threshold, thus they needed to go through the Central Procurement Board of Namibia.
The review panel’s decision resulted from a review application by companies that were unsuccessful with their bids for the lucrative tenders.
The companies are Lau Tom Constructions, Palladium Civil Engineering, Erongo Quarry and Civil Works, and Khan Trading.
The RA received over 800 bids for the five tenders, of which 39 companies were successful.
The tenders are for Windhoek, Oshakati, Keetmanshoop, Otjiwarongo, and Rundu areas.
According to the court documents, the total value of the Windhoek tender is N$70.1 million, Keetmanshoop is N$62.6 million, Otjiwarongo is N$72.8 million and Oshakati is worth N$60.1 million.
The tender for Rundu is the highest with a value of N$143.2 million.
The companies will maintain the tarred road for a period of 36 months.
In papers filed in the High Court, RA CEO Conrad Lutombi said no company is awarded a contract exceeding N$35 million.
“I aver that although the contracts are advertised under one bidding process, they still remain individual contracts and cannot be deemed to be one contract amount,” explained Lutombi.
He said it was wrong of the review panel to have taken the collective value of the contracts within the bidding process to reach a conclusion that the procurement was above the threshold.
“I further assert that advertising the contracts in one bidding process is simply to enhance the efficiency and to save cost relating to the bidding process for both applicant and bidders alike,” said Lutombi.
He said it would have been impractical to advertise all 39 individual bidding processes.
Thus, RA wants the court to review and set aside the review panel’s decision as it misdirected itself.
The Public Procurement Review Panel is yet to respond to RA’s application.
The matter will be in the High Court on 19 November for a status hearing.
-mamakali@nepc.com.na
Caption: (RA)