Rail tender hounds Ministry of Works

TENDER Board Chairperson Ericah Shafudah says her office will seek an explanation from the Ministry of Works and Transport why it failed to get three quotations for the N$150 million Kranzberg-Tsumeb railway line repair job.

‘For now these are still information which we read from the media. We will look at compliance issues and see what reasons if there are any and why the Tender Board resolution was not complied with, [sic]’ Shafudah told The Namibian yesterday.The multimillion-dollar project was awarded to D&M Rail Construction, a company that seems to be favoured by the Works Ministry for railway contracts since its establishment in 2010. The main shareholders in D&M Rail Construction are businessman John Walenga and investment broker James Hatuikulipi.Walenga is known to be a close friend of Works and Transport Permanent Secretary George Simataa.Works and Transport Minister Erkki Nghimtina submitted to Cabinet on December 9 last year that the repair job be given to D&M Rail Construction because the company has done ‘a remarkable job’ in completing the Ondangwa-Oshikango project. Nghimtina further sought Cabinet approval for the Ministry to use sleepers meant for the long overdue and equally important Aus-Lüderitz railway link.People are now asking what will happen to the Aus railway line, which will link the Karas Region to its closest harbour at Lüderitz.D&M Rail Construction has been getting tenders since the purchase and arrival of rails from VAE SA for the Ondangwa-Oshikango railway extension.The company already had been paid about N$6 million just for storing the rails at Walvis Bay harbour before securing the lucrative N$83 million construction tender for the Ondangwa-Oshikango railway line.In his Cabinet submission, Nghimtina had pleaded with his colleagues to give the work to D&M ‘as matter of urgency’ because of frequent derailments experienced by TransNamib between Kranzberg and Tsumeb.’This is in view of the fact that the northern-bound railway line carries most of the traffic and is crucial to the economic lifeline in the northern parts of the country,’ Nghimtina had motivated.An assessment carried out in 2009, according to Nghimtina’s Cabinet submission, indicated that N$250 million was needed to refurbish the dilapidated northbound railway line.The Tender Board granted an exemption on condition that at least two more quotations were sought in terms of Government’s requisition policy. Recently an official in the Ministry of Works told The Namibian that they could only get a quote from D&M because all other companies doing this kind of work were closed for Christmas, resulting in the company landing the lucrative job.Still more worrying is the fact that the Ministry of Works and Transport had only N$45 million available for rail network upgrading, with the remaining N$105 million to be sourced from Government’s Contingency Fund, according to the minister’s submission to Cabinet.D&M’s managing director, Dawie Moller, has been quoted as saying that D&M was already contracted to do monthly maintenance work on the worst parts of the line.Anti-Corruption Commission Director Paulus Noa told The Namibian that once he is back at the office next week he will seek an explanation why the Transport Ministry had not complied with the Tender Board conditions.