The Windhoek High Court is expected to make a determination in a case in which United Kingdom-based Menzies Aviation is suing the Namibia Airports Company for awarding a ground handling contract to Paragon and partners.
The parties appeared before Judge Eileen Rakow on Tuesday and would file all the necessary documentation ahead of the setting of trial dates.
Menzies Aviation is demanding a review of NAC’s decision, arguing that the company’s decision to disqualify their bid was done on baseless grounds. NAC awarded the multi-million-dollar contract to a joint venture between Paragon and Ethiopia Airlines.
In court documents seen by The Brief, Menzies alleges that they were discriminated against because they are not Namibian although 51% of its shares are owned by locals.
The company said it was informed in December last year that their bid was ineligible for evaluation as they failed to initial all pages within their bid package. The bid also contained documents which were not commissioned by the Namibian police.
They argue that this was not reason enough to disqualify them, as the initialization of papers is a non-factor.
Menzies Aviation also took a jab at Paragon, who they claim did not meet the bidding requirements, adding that NAC further violated the law by awarding a tender exceeding N$25 million.
This is against the stipulated threshold, suggesting that the Central Procurement Board of Namibia should have handled the bidding process.
It is reported that Menzies Aviation has been providing passenger and cargo handling services at the Hosea Kutako International Airport since February 2014. Its contract has been extended twice before. Their final contract came to an end on 30 June.
Part A of their application is to have the high court declare section 4 (2) of the Public Procurement Act, 15 of 2015 unconstitutional and of no force and effect, and to declare the NAC a category one public entity in terms of government regulations and as such may not attend to the procurement of goods and implicitly services which exceed an amount of N$25 million.
Part B of the lawsuit is an order to have NAC show why their decision disqualifying Menzies on the basis of page initialization should not be set aside.
