RCC future still unclear
The Cabinet Committee on Treasury has reportedly recommended that the company be shut down.
It is not yet clear what is to happen to the beleaguered Roads Contractor Company (RCC), but the minister of public enterprises, Leon Jooste, says a recommendation on the status from the Cabinet Committee on Treasury (CCT) will be made “soon”.
“It will still be very hard for me to share information on the RCC,” Jooste said, and would not divulge any more details. The chairperson of the CCT, minister of finance Calle Schlettwein, would not comment.
Acting RCC CEO Gerson Karaerua only shrugged, saying: “We're still waiting for a cabinet decision.”
Many at the parastatal are not waiting with bated breath, saying a decision is likely to only come once new parliamentarians have been sworn in after 21 March. Until then, what is left of the RCC's former headquarters in Windhoek is all but forlorn. The company had to sell it to Namibia Post and Telecommunications Holdings (NPTH) for about N$104 million to prevent Bank Windhoek from repossessing the buildings.
The boom gates at the entrance have been removed years ago, says the security guard. The main administration building has been vacated and is being renovated and repurposed, while makeshift offices have been set up in a mechanical workshop that stands empty except for broken-down vehicles and machines.
Rusty, antiquated earthmoving equipment stands on flat tyres in silent witness to what has clearly gone wrong at the parastatal.
The RCC, said Karaerua, is currently working on only two road projects: The Swakopmund-Henties Bay tar road, and the second phase of the road between Gobabis and Aminuis.
Many of the RCC's employees still receive salaries – despite having stayed home for years.
The RCC has never been placed under judicial management, a plan first mooted by the Cabinet Committee on Overall Policy and Priorities (CCOPP) in 2017 to rescue the distressed company as a going concern through a construction plan. The Public Enterprises Annual Rankings, a new publication by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) based on an assessment of 21 commercial state-owned enterprises, has ranked the RCC last, at number 21.
Former RCC employees believe the biggest error was the small amount received from government as start-up capital. They are quick to add, though, that the company could have made a profit had it not subcontracted its tenders to other companies.
Remaining loyal to the shell of the company, they still think it can make a profit and pull through with its two current road contracts.
In recent years, under successive managements and boards, there were attempts at resuscitating the company with a proposed N$400-million restructuring plan, and later with a suggestion that the RCC needed a massive capital injection of about N$5.2 billion for the construction of a mixed-use RCC Plaza, a waterfront and marina development at Walvis Bay, and road construction projects.
None of these grand plans got off the ground, and the IPPR in its rankings report said the CCT has reportedly recommended that the insolvent company be shut down.
CATHERINE SASMAN
“It will still be very hard for me to share information on the RCC,” Jooste said, and would not divulge any more details. The chairperson of the CCT, minister of finance Calle Schlettwein, would not comment.
Acting RCC CEO Gerson Karaerua only shrugged, saying: “We're still waiting for a cabinet decision.”
Many at the parastatal are not waiting with bated breath, saying a decision is likely to only come once new parliamentarians have been sworn in after 21 March. Until then, what is left of the RCC's former headquarters in Windhoek is all but forlorn. The company had to sell it to Namibia Post and Telecommunications Holdings (NPTH) for about N$104 million to prevent Bank Windhoek from repossessing the buildings.
The boom gates at the entrance have been removed years ago, says the security guard. The main administration building has been vacated and is being renovated and repurposed, while makeshift offices have been set up in a mechanical workshop that stands empty except for broken-down vehicles and machines.
Rusty, antiquated earthmoving equipment stands on flat tyres in silent witness to what has clearly gone wrong at the parastatal.
The RCC, said Karaerua, is currently working on only two road projects: The Swakopmund-Henties Bay tar road, and the second phase of the road between Gobabis and Aminuis.
Many of the RCC's employees still receive salaries – despite having stayed home for years.
The RCC has never been placed under judicial management, a plan first mooted by the Cabinet Committee on Overall Policy and Priorities (CCOPP) in 2017 to rescue the distressed company as a going concern through a construction plan. The Public Enterprises Annual Rankings, a new publication by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) based on an assessment of 21 commercial state-owned enterprises, has ranked the RCC last, at number 21.
Former RCC employees believe the biggest error was the small amount received from government as start-up capital. They are quick to add, though, that the company could have made a profit had it not subcontracted its tenders to other companies.
Remaining loyal to the shell of the company, they still think it can make a profit and pull through with its two current road contracts.
In recent years, under successive managements and boards, there were attempts at resuscitating the company with a proposed N$400-million restructuring plan, and later with a suggestion that the RCC needed a massive capital injection of about N$5.2 billion for the construction of a mixed-use RCC Plaza, a waterfront and marina development at Walvis Bay, and road construction projects.
None of these grand plans got off the ground, and the IPPR in its rankings report said the CCT has reportedly recommended that the insolvent company be shut down.
CATHERINE SASMAN
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