Dutch shipyard challenges Kiwi decision

Dutch shipbuilder Schelde Marinebouw, part of the Damen Shipyads Group, says it has filed a legal claim seeking to overturn a decision by the New Zealand government’s to award Australian firm Tenix a contract to build seven new ships for its navy. Schelde said it had lodged a claim in the High Court in Wellington against the Ministry of Defence (as first defendant) and Tenix (as second defendant) for $55 million.

In April, Tenix was named as the preferred tenderer for the new navy ships under the $500 million ?Project Protector? programme following what the government described as “an exhaustive” tendering process. The project includes building a new 8,000 tonne multi-role ship capable of undertaking tactical sealift and disaster relief operations in the Pacific. Tenix has contracted the Dutch shipyard Merwede to build that ship. The other new ships are two 1,500 tonne offshore patrol vessles and four 350 tonne inshore patrol craft.

A spokesman for Schelde, as the New Zealand MoD’s second preferred option for the multi-role vessel (MRV), said in a statement it was the actions of Ministry of Defence officials that were being questioned. “Schelde has no beef with fellow shipbuilder Tenix. But in our opinion Tenix has wrongly been awarded the contract through a fatally flawed tender process,” the spokesman said. “Tenix has only been nominated as a defendant because of New Zealand’s legal requirements.”

Schelde said its claim questioned both the safety of the proposed ship-to-shore transfer system and whether the Ministry of Defence could lawfully have chosen it. Schelde said that aside from carrying a landing craft, the MRV’s ro-ro design provided little additional capability notwithstanding its likely price tag of up to $250 million. Other shipbuilders were probably capable of meeting the full operational requirements within the $100 million originally indicated as being available for this project.

A spokeswoman for the government said the contract with Tenix had been signed after final ministry negotiations that were supported by legal and technical advice.