Airport tender in transit
THE lucrative airport passenger and cargo handling tender at the Hosea Kutako International Airport, which is subject to several legal suits, has gotten even more complicated.
Menzies Aviation is currently seeking an interdict against the joint venture between Paragon Investment and Ethiopia Airlines over the takeover.
Menzies also claims to have entered into a new contract with the Namibia Airports Company (NAC) after their long-term contract ended on 30 June.
In June, the Windhoek High Court ordered that Menzies’ contract to provide handling services at HKIA shall cease on 30 June. The court also ordered the
company to vacate occupation of any premises at the airport, and hand over all security access cards or other access equipment entitling it to access HKIA or any premises it occupied during its operations.
The court’s order was the result of the suit that was filed by the NAC after Menzies refused to hand over the reins to the joint venture which won the tender to replace it in December 2021.
Menzies has been providing passenger and cargo handling services at HKIA since February 2014. The joint venture was meant to start its operations on 1 July.
In the current suit, Menzies wants an interdict against NAC, Paragon and its joint venture partner Ethiopia Airlines to implement the court’s order of June.
They have asked the court for the term of service to remain as is.
Menzies says the interdict must take effect until the court has resolved the review application, where it seeks a review of NAC’s decision to award the multimillion-dollar contract to the joint venture between Paragon and Ethiopia Airlines.
In the review application, Menzies also claim they were discriminated against on the basis that they are not Namibian, despite 51% of its shares being owned by locals.
Furthermore, they said, NAC awarded the tender to a joint venture that did not meet bidding requirements, and it violated the law by awarding a tender exceeding N$25 million.
This, they say, is against the stipulated threshold, suggesting the Central Procurement Board of Namibia should have handled the bidding process. These allegations have been refuted by NAC, who claim that everything was above board with the tender process.
According to NAC CEO Bisey /Uirab, Menzies and two other companies did not meet the eligibility requirements, thus were disqualified. They allegedly failed to have some of their documents commissioned, while others were not initialled. /Uirab claims that Menzies is not truthful, as it tried to inflate the tender by including the rental of the facilities at the airport into the bid.
According to him, the value of the bid was based on what Menzies paid out to NAC between July 2020 and June 2021.
“The amount per annum was N$2.1 million. When considered over five years, the guaranteed income was below N$25 million,” said /Uirab.
This, he said, was the total value of the tender at the time when NAC invited bids.
NAC maintains the award is within their threshold and did not exceed the N$25 million mark. Furthermore, the financial proposal by Menzies is bad and “oppressive” to NAC, the company claimed.