Martin Endjala
The Central Procurement Board of Namibia (CPBN) is busy studying the High Court ruling last week, which nullified the CPBN decision to award a N$1.3 billion pharmaceutical supply tender to Cospharm Investment Pty Ltd.
CPBN spokesperson Johanna Kambala said this in response to questions about whether the board will re-run the tender process or possibly re-award it.
“Kindly be informed that CPBN is busy studying the ruling and thus will only revert once consultations have taken place,” said Kambala.
Businessman Shapwa Kanyama’s Africure Pharmaceutical took Cospharm, the CPBN, and other bidders to court last year.
Cospharm was to supply pharmaceuticals used in cancer treatment and psychological disorders for two years.
Kamwanya said he took the fight to court to keep the money in the country.
“It was not about me but about Namibia. This is money that would have left the country. Namibians have submitted tenders for this project, and they are all capable of supplying the products. It is not always about Shapwa,” he said.
The court also ordered Cospharm and CPBN to share Africure’s legal costs.
The tender worth IN$1.4 billion, advertised on 29 April 2022 was awarded by the Central Procurement Board of Namibia (CPBN) on 16 August 2023 for the procurement of supply and delivery of pharmaceutical products for the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
The tender was awarded to Cospharm, a company with a five-year-old child as the majority shareholder.
On 23, 2023, due to irregularities, Cospharm was among 22 bidders who were initially not selected to be awarded a tender.
In a CPBN summary, the company was disqualified for failing to initial next to a mistake the bidder made on the contract and for not responding to CPBN’s enquiries.
Cospharm then applied for reconsideration on 2 May 2023. The company contended that the specified grounds should not have disqualified the bid.
The re-evaluation revealed that Cospharm’s bid was the most cost-effective for some line items, which resulted in a reallocation of the awarded products.
Africure Pharmaceutical then filed a court application for an interdict to halt the execution of a N$1.3 billion tender while it was under review.
In April 2023, Africure was awarded a tender for supplying pharmaceutical products to the health ministry worth approximately N$123 million, but these awards were adjusted after Cospharm submitted a reconsideration, which saw Africure getting N$45 million.
Africure’s review application alleges that the CPBN failed to ensure that the company was treated procedurally fairly under Section 18 of the Constitution.
