Big names absent from catering tender

IN spite of Namibia’s richest prize in catering being up for grabs – the N$278 million a year, five-year contract to supply Namibia’s school hostels with food – none of the biggest or best-known companies appear to have entered bids for the tender.

Some 38 companies had expressed interest, but only 21 companies submitted bids for feeding the approximately 50 000 hostel residents in Namibia. Of these, only the French multinational Sodexho Food Management is a well-known caterer with an established track record. The most notable missing name is that of Independence Caterers, which has held the tender since 2002 and whose contract will expire at the end of April. The initial contract was only for two years, but was extended several times for technical reasons by the Ministry of Education.Independence Caterers MD Jakes Haimbodi acknowledged to The Namibian that ‘… the Independence name had been tainted’ by press coverage in 2005, but declined to discuss whether Independence had entered a bid under a new name.Their tenure has not been without controversy: in 2005, the company and its Catering Association of Namibia (CAN) affiliates, which held various parts of the overall contract, were investigated by an inter-ministerial taskforce as part of a general probe into catering practices at school hostels. The company was subsequently ordered to upgrade the quality of milk powder they were supplying. But accusations of collusive tender practices were rejected because the lead investigator, Sackey Shanghala of the Attorney General’s Office, did not find that there was significant cross-shareholding between these companies.However, in a nod to these concerns, the new tender specified that no joint bids by two or more companies would be allowed if these companies held more than 25 per cent of each other’s shares.One company involved in the current round of bidding has lodged an objection with the Tender Board against three competitors (names withheld) in what its lawyer said was evidence of collusive tendering practices, according to documents seen by The Namibian. The bid by these companies failed to comply with certain sections of the Tender Board and Competition Acts and ‘…constitutes or is based on collusive tendering, concerted practises, and/or horizontal relationships of and/or disqualified tenderers,’ the letter stated.Failure to see to it that the relevant tender specifications were adhered to could see the client (who did not want to be named in fear of jeopardising its current bid) pursue legal action, the letter warned.No comment was available from the Tender Board on Friday. Asked specifically if Independence had submitted a bid under one or more of the other 21 companies that submitted bids last month, Haimbodi said he would rather not comment at this stage.The other most notable absentee from the tender was Global Foods, which had been systematically forced out of every State contract they had held over the past few years. Global Foods had unsuccessfully attempted to sue Independence for allegedly improperly influencing the Ministry to award their contracts to Independence instead.Former Global Foods MD Dr Lourens Erasmus said he and his partner had essentially given the company away to their Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) partners after losing a substantial amount of money in the course of all the legal wrangles.Unlike the contract held by Independence, the new tender imposes very strict standards and monitoring controls, as well as requiring a performance bid equivalent to three per cent of the total tendered amount to be lodged with the Ministry.This bond – which on average of the prices submitted worked out to about N$8,34 million – would be used as a guarantee that the successful tendering company does not break the terms of the contract. A percentage of this will be deducted by the Government from the bond lodged by the successful bidding company, which amount has to be ‘topped up’ by the company again. Should a company fail to adhere to the contractual terms, the State could cancel its contract and keep the balance of the money.The bids were checked by the Tender Board Secretariat for general tender compliance, and those bids which passed muster were now being evaluated in turn by an Education Ministry committee. The tender is expected to be awarded by the end of April. * John Grobler is a freelance journalist; johngrob@iway.na