This is some primo conflict of interest drama. The director of Namibia's Roads Contractor Company, Rhys Mbala, got his own private engineering firm, Trinitas Consulting Engineers, picked for a government road job. His lawyers are now saying he had no clue about project changes when his company won the deal. They sent a letter to a newspaper contesting an earlier report.
The legal team from Shipindo & Associates Inc claims the whole bidding process was clean. They say the Works Ministry put out public ads for road projects back in July. Trinitas sent in its proposal then. The project itself, a gravel road in the Kavango West region, got switched up later. The local council asked to change it from a school access road to one for the Mbeyo-Erago school and clinic, a revision the national planning commission approved in September. The lawyer states Mbala's role as a consultant was already locked in before that revision happened, and before anyone knew the RCC would be the builder.
The attorney says the ministry told the Roads Authority in late October which seven roads were a priority, naming the RCC as the contractor for this one. According to the letter, that was the moment Mbala found out his parastatal would be involved. The lawyers claim he declared his potential conflict right away after learning that detail. So the official story is that he was in the dark about the project revision and the RCC's involvement until after his company got the consulting gig.
The legal team from Shipindo & Associates Inc claims the whole bidding process was clean. They say the Works Ministry put out public ads for road projects back in July. Trinitas sent in its proposal then. The project itself, a gravel road in the Kavango West region, got switched up later. The local council asked to change it from a school access road to one for the Mbeyo-Erago school and clinic, a revision the national planning commission approved in September. The lawyer states Mbala's role as a consultant was already locked in before that revision happened, and before anyone knew the RCC would be the builder.
The attorney says the ministry told the Roads Authority in late October which seven roads were a priority, naming the RCC as the contractor for this one. According to the letter, that was the moment Mbala found out his parastatal would be involved. The lawyers claim he declared his potential conflict right away after learning that detail. So the official story is that he was in the dark about the project revision and the RCC's involvement until after his company got the consulting gig.
