The Vinci-Orascom JV, which bid $291 million, and the consortium, known as NSC Neckartal Dam, with a $276-million bid, each moved to court separately to challenge the March award to Salini.

Vinci-Orascom has since withdrawn its lawsuit, declining to explain the abrupt move, but the NSC Neckartal challenge still is pending.

An attorney for NSC Neckartal said the contract award should be reviewed, set aside and rebid.

In March, William Amagulu, deputy chairman of Namibia's contracts board, defended the award to Salini, citing the Italian firm's staff experience and project-delivery techology.

The court has yet to decide the case.

The dam is located in Namibia's Karas region and is the first phase of the so-called Neckartal Irrigation Scheme, according to Salini.

The company says it will construct a roller-compacted-concrete (RCC) dam that is 80 m high with a holding capacity of 857 million cu m.

The project will generate power and supply water to irrigate 5,000 hectares of farmland.

Disputed Ugandan Hydro Award

In Uganda, a rebid of the construction contract for the $2.2-billion Karuma hydroelectric power project on the Nile is caught up in internal politics between a national court and the country’s Inspectorate of Government (IG), an independent agency charged with eliminating corruption and abuse of authority.

Earlier this year, after Uganda's high court had thrown out the EPC contract to China Water and Electric Corp., contending the firm “flouted laid-down rules and procedures," the IG moved to bar the firm from a planned rebid because of what it claimed was misleading information in China Water's documents.

But a new, lower-court challenge in April blocked the IG’s move, contending the agency did not have the power to probe abuse of the tendering process for the project, which is two years behind schedule.

The IG said in May it would appeal that new ruling, but some observers are speculating whether that will happen, after the Ugandan government signed a funding deal with China in June to provide the project $500 million of credit.

Karuma is the second Ugandan hydro project to be halted over implementation disputes.

In May, planning work stopped on the World Bank-funded Bulusambu hydro project on the Manafwa River after locals protested it would remove the only fertile farmland available and blocked efforts to carry out environmental impact studies.

Tanzania Pipeline Proceeds Protest