Business Park still in limbo

A N$19 million tender for the construction of an SME business park at the Omahenene border post in the Omusati Region has suffered another setback.The Offshore Development Company (ODC), which is the project custodian, is in the process of contracting a third company to finish the construction project that started in 2013, after the first two contractors failed.Last year the ODC revoked the construction tender awarded in 2013 to Katrina Enterprises, a company owned by Katrina Elifas, the daughter of Ondonga King Immanuel Kauluma Elifas, and her Chinese business partners. The ODC alleged that the joint venture of Katrina Enterprises and Zhen Jiang Construction and Engineering had violated the contractual agreement by halting construction work in 2014.The project was supposed to be completed by May 2015 but the contractor abandoned the site, having completed only 65% of the work. The ODC then awarded the contract to Omusati Construction, which failed to complete the work due to financial difficulties.ODC CEO Phillip Namundjebo told Namibian Sun that Omusati Construction was still at the site but nothing was going on there.“The contractor (Omusati Construction) has completed some work on the project. However, they encountered financial and technical difficulties which led to the delay of the project,” said Namundjebo.“We are considering subcontracting a company with the financial capacity to complete the remaining work, which is mainly the road work.”AbandonedWhen Namibian Sun visited the site last week, little appeared to have changed since the previous contractor abandoned the project.Contacted for comment, Omusati Construction's project manager, Olavi Iita, said they had stopped the work because the government had stopped paying them.“The ministry responsible for the project told us that they did not have money to pay us. They even stopped coming to the project for supervision last year and it became difficult for us to move further because there are no resources,” said Iita.“We are still on site and we are still engaging them with the hope that things will go well and we can progress with the construction.”A source at the ODC said the government stopped paying Omusati Construction because its surety bond had been provided by the now defunct SME Bank. A surety bond is a type of insurance that protects someone against losses that result from a contractor's failure to perform its obligation. “The government cannot pay where there is no insurance. Since the contractor was not getting money from the government the project came to a standstill,” the source said.Iita would neither confirm nor deny the source's explanation.

Business Park still in limbo

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-17

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Business Park still in limbo

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-17

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