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As the battle for supplies of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs continues, businessman Shapwa Kanyama says dozens of his employees will be out of work if the Central Procurement Board of Namibia (CPBN) does not award the lucrative contract to his company.
Kanyama made the remarks in a recent court filing in which he also asked the High Court to urgently hear the review application.
His company, Africure Pharmaceuticals Namibia, won the tender to supply antiretroviral drugs to the Ministry of Health. However, CPBN questioned the decision.
In explaining why his company’s review application should be considered urgently, Kanyama said his company had various operating expenses.
“(Africure) employs temporary workers. Clearly, a single valid award cannot sustain three months’ wages, let alone various other expenses,” the court document reads.
The businessman said that if the review application is not accepted, it will also result in unemployment.
“I believe that the livelihoods of Africure employees will be affected if the award is not implemented,” the document reads.
The court document added: “As a result of the disputed procurement process, Africure has suffered significant financial losses as the company has had to lay off factory employees because the contract value is too small to pay those employees. Africure will not be able to continue to build its production capacity as a local pharmaceutical manufacturer.”
“Illusory” dilemma
CPBN chairman Amon Ngavetene rejected Kanyama’s defence, saying there would be no financial loss if the review application was not heard on an urgent basis.
“I deny that Kanyama would suffer irreparable financial hardship if the tendered items were offered by other successful bidders. The hardship he posits is spurious. Africare has not at all said, much less demonstrated, that its tender was wrongly assessed and that it should have been awarded to most of the other items,” he said.
Ngavetene said Kanyama knew when CPBN would sign a contract with its chosen supplier.
“For a long time, (Africure) knew exactly when the contract would be signed. It tried twice to block the procurement process with an emergency application, but both times failed. Nothing it says now means that the third attempt is urgent,” he said.
He further argued that Kanyama’s application must be struck off the court roll or dismissed on merits as the situation is not urgent enough.
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