• Business

Paragon ‘ready’ for airport job

- 2022-07-12 08:30:00

Paragon Investment Holdings says the company and its partners are ready to take over the ground handling services at Hosea Kutako International Airport (HKIA) once the lawsuit between the Namibian Airports Company (NAC) and Menzies Aviation has been settled.
Menzies Aviation handled these services at the airport for the past eight years before the contract was awarded to Paragon and its joint partner, Ethiopian Airlines.
The NAC lodged an urgent application with the High Court in Windhoek for Menzies to vacate the airport on 30 June so that Paragon could take over the ground handling services on 1 July. However, Menzies not only opposed the application but filed a counterclaim in the hope of obtaining an interdict against NAC postponing the handover of services until a review application - which the company had submitted to the court - had been finalized.
Menzies’ application seeks to review and set aside NAC’s decision to award the tender to Paragon. They allege that Paragon did not meet the tender requirements and therefore should not have been awarded the contract.
The court granted the NAC’s urgent application on June 29 and ordered Menzies to vacate the premises. Menzies appealed against that ruling and their review application continues. Until then, Menzies remains in charge of ground handling services at HKIA.
‘More than ready’
Menzies claimed in court documents that Paragon would not be able to handle the job since the company would allegedly use outdated Air Namibia equipment. However, Paragon says they are ready to perform the services.
“All the money involved here will remain in Namibia because this is a Namibian company. No money will have to be paid to partners abroad, so it is in Namibia for Namibia. We are more than ready to serve the country,” Paragon’s co-founder, Desmond Amunyela, said.
Paragon has reportedly already spent more than N$25 million on equipment. Amunyela added that some equipment taken over from Air Namibia needed to be refurbished and upgraded.
“It is in our agreement with the NAC that we must purchase equipment that is not less than five years old.”
Paragon has allegedly already trained and employed 80 people and will reportedly start with about 90 full-time employees across its various departments. “We appointed people with experience and training and a French training authority further trained the employees. The staff is trained in every aspect of ground handling management and we probably have the best trained and most experienced staff in Namibia,” Amunyela said.
He added that training facilities will be available on-site to help maintain the standard of employees’ skills.
“Namibians should be proud of this step because we are more than ready and open to any audit of a Namibian stakeholder. Let us not believe in wild allegations,” he said.