A DECISION of the former board of directors of the Namibia Airports Company to choose a Chinese-owned company to upgrade the Ondangwa Airport at a cost of N$211 million has been cancelled by a judge of the Windhoek High Court.
The NAC board’s decision to award the Ondangwa Airport upgrade contract to the company China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China State) was reviewed and set aside by judge Thomas Masuku in a judgement handed down on Friday morning. The board took the decision on 23 June 2016.
Judge Masuku also declared that any contract between the NAC and the Chinese company that may have been created as a result of the board’s decision has been void from the start.
The NAC itself took the unusual step of asking the court to review and set aside the former board’s decision after a new board of directors took office in September 2016.
The former acting chief executive officer of the NAC, Lot Haifidi, claimed in an affidavit filed with the High Court in December 2017 that the NAC’s procurement policy was flouted when the board decided to award the Ondangwa Airport upgrading contract to China State without going through a competitive tender process.
Haifidi also claimed the award of the contract to China State was marred by irregularities committed by the then CEO of the NAC, Tamer El-Kallawi, and the then head of the parastatal’s department of engineering and projects, Courage Silombela, with the aim of getting the board to approve the award of the project to China State without following the NAC’s prescribed tender procedures.
By not complying with the NAC’s procurement policy, the NAC board acted unlawfully and irregularly, and exposed the parastatal to a risk of serious financial difficulties, as no provision had been made in the parastatal’s budget for expenditure of N$211 million on a further upgrade of the Ondangwa Airport, Haifidi also alleged in his sworn statement.
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