Namibia: Ministry defends road tenders

Namibia's Ministry of Works says it does a lot to uplift local contractors, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Ministry Permanent Secretary George Simataa last week called a media briefing to refute allegations that the ministry was giving the majority of road construction projects to Chinese companies. He was referring to an article published in the Windhoek Observer, headlined ‘Chinese could dodge tender regulations’.

The article stated that for years local contractors in the road maintenance and construction sector have accused Government of contravening tender regulations by awarding the bulk of tenders to foreign firms, especially Chinese companies which have virtually taken over the local construction industry.
Simataa said this was not true, as the Ministry makes sure that in some categories 50 per cent of the tender value is reserved for SME contractors.
He added that in the last year only one Chinese company got a road construction tender – to construct phase one of the Rundu–Elundu road.
He said this was done because the project was co-funded by the Japanese International Co-operation Agency and part of the agreement was that the tender be advertised internationally.
Simataa added that most of the major capital projects are advertised internationally because of the skills shortage in the country and to build capacity the Ministry made it requirement that 15 to 25 per cent of the capital project value should to be subcontracted to SME contractors.
A look at the seven capital road construction tenders awarded last year reveals that five were awarded to South African contractors. The other two were awarded to a joint venture between the Roads Contractor Company (RCC) and a Lebanese firm.
For labour-intensive projects relating to gravel roads, Government requires that between 40 and 50 per cent of the construction value be given to SME subcontractors even if the main contractor is a local company.
That way, Simataa said, Government was uplifting and training local contractors for the future. None of the six labour-intensive projects have been awarded to a non-Namibian contractor.
Simataa added that maintenance tenders are given only to Namibian firms. About 70 per cent of road maintenance work is reserved for the RCC, while the remaining 30 per cent is given to local contractors through competitive bidding.
He concluded by stating that in the past six months the Ministry had advertised 42 building construction tenders, 32 of which, with a total value of N$178 million, were awarded to Namibian companies.
Ten bigger building contracts, valued at N$195 million, were awarded to foreign companies.
He said the big tenders were awarded to foreign companies because of a lack of skills locally.

Copyright: The Namibian