Landscaping tender flop still haunts Government

GOVERNMENT is facing a N$33 million lawsuit by a company claiming that the State reneged on a tender valued at N$90 million.
Oryx Development Group was awarded the tender to do landscaping for the new State House, but the tender was cancelled ‘without any reason’ after the company had already started with the work.

The company is demanding compensation of N$33 million for breach of contract, after Government decided to terminate its N$90 million contract to do the landscaping job.A Government source told The Namibian that Government Attorneys had offered Oryx an out-of-court settlement amount of N$10 million in May this year, but Oryx is believed to have rejected the offer. A source close to the Ministry of Works told The Namibian that the price tag of N$90 million was too costly for Government. This realisation only came after the deal had been signed and Oryx had started working on the project.Government has not provided any reason for the termination of the contract.Cabinet is believed to have supported the Works Ministry’s decision to cancel the contract. Oryx Development Group’s Lawyer, Coline Bazuin of Bazuin-Halberstadt Legal Practitioners, was only willing to confirm that no settlement had been reached with Government and that notice was given to the Government Attorney of Oryx Development Group’s intention to institute legal proceedings. Bazuin also declined to say whether the Government had provided reasons to Oryx for the termination of the contract. In September last year, Insight Namibia reported that the contract was cancelled on orders of Cabinet despite the fact that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had found that there was no corruption in awarding the tender to the Oranjemund-based company. Former Works Under Secretary Ben Kathindi resigned amid allegations of illegally advancing payments to the tune of N$5 million to Oryx. The ACC cleared Kathindi on any corruption charges, although concluding that he acted negligently in side-stepping tender laws and procedures by appointing Oryx in April 2004, while he was only in an acting capacity as Deputy Permanent Secretary. Oryx is believed to be claiming for damages because it had to relocate from Oranjemund to Windhoek and for the money used to acquire equipment. State House referred questions about the Oryx controversy to the Ministry of Works. Meanwhile, The Namibian was also informed that plans are afoot to construct an additional guesthouse at the State House complex. The cost of the new guesthouse is unknown and will only add to the ever-escalating cost of building the new State House. Government has allocated an additional amount of N$228 million for the next three years for the construction, which is estimated to have cost more than N$1 billion so far. The original cost of the State House was set at N$230 million.