Is The RCC Being Sidelined?

• ALEXACTUS T KAUREIN RECENT years the state-owned roads construction company, the Roads Contractor Company, has been in a state of flux partly because of its own making (the flawed Zambian venture and the so-called investment in the B1 project) and partly because of sabotage by others.

The RCC’s sole mandate is to construct roads in the country, although it once ventured into Zambia with disastrous consequences. Now the RCC is technically bankrupt. The recent demonstrations over delayed payments of salaries where police had to intervene and retrenchments that have been taking place there speak to that.

Now while the RCC is struggling to survive, a tender worth N$435 million is awarded to two former RCC bosses to build roads.

The two are Kelly Nghixulifwa and Elmo Kaiyamo, former CEO and a manager respectively – who might as well have contributed to the mess at the RCC.

How possibly can one allocate such a huge amount of public money to private individuals while the RCC is struggling? Is this the so-called public-private partnership (PPP) or just pure privatisation of the Namibian economy? Or even more, just pure legalised corruption?

Why was the RCC not given the tender? The Roads Authority has the answer! But how can the board and the line ministry allow this? What applies to the RCC applies to other entities as well – especially the NHE where the government is now being sued left, right and centre by the tenderpreneurs even after they had done sub-standard work.

A flu is circulating in the air and, should it catch us, it will spell danger for the country. Read this scary headline: ‘Army eyes mega road deal’(The Namibian, 22 October 2015). We are told that ‘the military company August 26 Construction that started operating just last year is chasing two lucrative road tenders worth a combined N$2 billion.

It is further reported that ‘the company has already set its eyes on the proposed highway between Windhoek and Okahandja that is worth over N$1 billion. The other project is the expansion of the Windhoek-Hosea Kutako International Airport road valued between N$700 million and N$1 billion.

A company that only started operating since last year is eyeing all these billions? Doesn’t this remind one of the Avid Investment scandal at the Social Security Commission? But you don’t have to worry because our ‘super friends’ (the Chinese) would be brought in to do the work and the military generals would sit back and ‘chop’ the money as our Nigerians friends would put it.

It seems to me that our soldiers are getting new roles day by day. You might remember this headline in New Era newspaper: “More soldiers to tackle poachers.” The article then went on to say: “Although Cabinet has given the green light to the country’s security forces to be involved in the fight against poaching and other crimes threatening wildlife, the number of the armed forces still needs to be intensified”.

Now they are branching into roads/bridges construction work. Maybe this is the legacy that our former minister of defence, Nahas Angula, is giving to the country. He said: ‘The defence industries should be the engine of economic growth in the country’.

There are three fundamental reasons why I would be opposed to giving such a tender to August 26 Construction. First, we have set up a state-owned company tasked with the construction of roads in the country and all it has to do is to employ as many people as possible on a permanent basis to do the work – all major construction jobs must be carried out by the RCC. We should not make a mockery of the very institutions that we create just because some people are benefiting from this tender system.

Secondly, the ministry of defence always gets the lion’s share of the national budget. Last year defence got a whopping N$6,6 billion and this year the military hawks were rewarded with N$7 billion and health, which is more critical, came in third.

Military companies are: August 26 Holdings, Windhoek Machinen-Fabrik, Sat-Com, August 26 Textile and Garment Factory, August 26 Shoe Factory, Agro Tour, August 26 Logistics, August 26 Orient and now August 26 Construction. Who audits their books? I have no clue.

Thirdly, the ministry of defence is one of the most corrupt institutions in the country. In September 2013, Tileni Mongudhi, in a brilliant investigative journalist, gave us the inside story in the ministry’s dealings. The title was apt: “Inside the NDF food tender: the questionable deal’.

Mongudhi wrote then that the food contract that the ministry of defence will start implementing next month (October 2013) is characterised by a high level of secrecy, alleged fronting and payment of kickbacks’.

Thus giving the army a tender of this magnitude will not only be a bonanza for the army generals, most of whom don’t even have a sense of corporate governance but also work with some shady outside characters.