The Central Procurement Board of Namibia (CPBN) has terminated a N$35.5 million contract with Neu-Olulya Trading CC for the construction of phase one (b) of the Nkurenkuru Vocational Training Centre (VTC) in the Kavango West region.
The latest termination was for a project with a total value of N$35 561 067.67, conducted by the CPBN on behalf of the Namibia Training Authority (NTA).
Neu-Olulya Trading CC was supposed to construct the Vocational Training Centre between September 2020 and September 2022.
After contract termination, Neu-Olulya Trading CC opted for the tender adjudication process but the adjudicator ruled in favour of NTA on 17 March 2022.
As a result, construction on site has been halted since 30 September 2021.
A statement from the CPBN spokesperson, Johanna Kambala, explained that in terms of the Public Procurement Act (PPA), CPBN is mandated to direct and supervise accounting officers in managing the implementation of procurement contracts awarded by its board.
This responsibility is carried out by the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Unit at CPBN.
The first evaluation visit to the project was conducted on 10 November 2020 and was followed by another visit in April 2021.
“It is during these M&E site visits that CPBN discovered there was poor/slow performance in the implementation of the project by the contractor,” the CPBN statement read.
The Nkurenkuru VTC forms part of government’s effort to decentralise services by taking much-needed facilities closer to the people, and many Namibian youth are expected to benefit from this VTC.
However, the CPBN stated it is disheartening to note that a project of such magnitude has to be brought to a standstill because of the non-performance of a contractor who was entrusted to complete this very important project.
“The CPBN, in remedying the situation, has opted to conduct an emergency procurement with restrictions to bidders who participated in the first bidding process to get a contractor on site as soon as practically possible. The emergency procurement process is at an advanced stage. The determination of the contract should serve as a stern warning to bidders that CPBN will not tolerate non-performance on projects it has awarded,” the statement read.
The CPBN also received documentary evidence from the NTA regarding poor performance by the contractor.
As such, various project meetings were held between the project manager and Neu-Olulya Trading CC to discuss the slow progress of the project.
To address the poor performance by Neu-Olulya Trading CC, the project manager furnished them with several notifications to raise concerns regarding the slow progress and poor performance on site.
These notifications included letters sent in November 2020 and January 2021 as well as a third notification recorded in February 2021 as well as a fourth notification letter sent in May 2021.
“Furthermore, the contractor was given various opportunities to submit catch-up plans on how they would address the slow progress but still failed to implement their catch-up plans,” the CPBN stated.
The CPBN further noted the lack of performance by the contractor was further evident in the project financial expenditure which was at 7.5% on 10 August 2021, whereas the contract period/time had lapsed with 47.5 % by then.
– ebrandt@nepc.com.na