584 road contracts executed in five years

The Roads Authority (RA) has executed 584 road construction and maintenance contracts worth N$17,5 billion over the last five years.

This was announced by chief executive of the authority Conrad Lutombi, who was responding to a letter by the Construction Industries Federation of Namibia (CIF) and the Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union (Manwu).

The two bodies sent a letter to RA on 1 June, demanding that local construction companies are given preference in major public works projects.
Lutombi said the parastatal remains committed to fostering an environment conducive to empowering and capacitating local contractors.

He said of the 584 contracts, 571 have been awarded to local contractors, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), emerging contractors and local subcontractors, which represents 98% of local participation.

In addition, six contracts have been awarded to joint ventures between Namibian and foreign contractors, representing 1%, while seven contracts have been awarded to wholly owned foreign contractors, representing 1%.

Lutombi says the Windhoek-Hosea Kutako Airport Phase 2a and Phase 2b, as well as the Tses-Gochas project are among the projects awarded to foreign contractors without partnering with local entities. This, he says, “emanated from the fact that the terms and conditions of the financing agreements required open international bidding”.

In terms of monetary value, Lutombi says N$9,25 billion worth of roadworks have been executed by local contractors, while joint ventures between foreign and local contractors executed N$5,7 billion, with N$2,6 billion paid to foreign-owned contractors. “The RA will continue to empower local contractors in building local capacity to contribute to the efforts of our government’s commitment to creating local capacity, employment opportunities, and alleviating poverty,” he says.

CIF chief executive officer Bärbel Kirchner says the federation has reached out to several stakeholders, including president Hage Geingob, prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and John Mutorwa, the minister of works and transport. Kirchner says the federation urges the government to effect proposed changes to the construction industry.

“The engagement of foreign contractors will . . . have disadvantageous macroeconomic implications,” she says. Manwu secretary general Justina Jonas says workers are losing jobs because there is not enough work for local businesses. “Why should foreign companies get the work our bona fide local contractors can do?” she asks. The two entities have called for the cancellation and advertisement of the Usakos-Karibib road project bidding process, claiming local companies were locked out. However, Lutombi says no irregularity has occurred to warrant the cancellation of the tender. The Roads Authority’s shortlisting of seven Chinese companies competing for the N$300-million project was heavily criticised by the public. The project is financed by a loan from the German Development Bank under the NDP5 support programme.

As a result, both the government and the RA are bound to fulfil the legally binding conditions as set out in the financing agreement, he says.

The CIF and Manwu have launched an online protest after their attempts to engage the relevant authorities to save the local construction industry have failed. “We call on everyone to support our campaign to go viral.

It is impossible that our local contractors are being displaced when we have our capacity,” Kirchner yesterday said. The online protest will take place in the form of a Facebook competition until 21 July 2023. Entrants are encouraged to use the hashtag #supportourcontractors.