Tender winners must pay it back

BUFFALO City Metro (BCM) councillors have demanded that companies awarded multimillionrand tenders by the city should be required to give back to the communities they work in.

As a result of the demand, concerned BCM councillors refused to adopt a revised 2016-17 supply chain management policy on infrastructure procurement and delivery management policies tabled by acting city manager Bob Naidoo.

The councillors said that in a recent councillors’ workshop at Mpekweni near Port Alfred, it was agreed that among additions to the policies, was a social responsibility clause where companies commit and deliver to communities they serve.

ANC Ward 25 councillor Crosby Kolela said there were some gaps in the report despite the matters having been discussed at the recent workshop.

“I think we should stick to basics because in Mpekweni we agreed that contractors awarded huge amounts in tenders should consider, in fact it should be a policy, that there should be a social responsibility,” Kolela said in the last council meeting.

“You can’t be given a contract of R500-million and then you leave that community without leaving anything.

“Secondly, we should be specific in our policy so that we don’t seem as interfering with the supply chain management.”

Kolela said it was ratepayers’ money used by the metro in some projects and the residents “deserved to benefit back”.

He said: “I will support a situation where we say let’s adopt this policy as a draft and then we defer it to the workshop where we will have all the stakeholders.

“I’m talking about the city’s ratepayers and business people and we should not only consult the Border-Kei Chamber of Business . . . This should be wardbased so that when we are having the workshop we can have a very inclusive one,” Kolela added.

ANC councillors Luleka SimonNdzele and Sindiswa Gomba agreed with Kolela, with Gomba stating that Naidoo’s report “should be taken as a draft”.

Council speaker Alfred Mtsi added it was important that what was stressed in the workshop should be aligned with the final reviewed policy.

DA councillor Annette Redemeyer called for all stakeholders to be invited to give input.

However, despite promises to include all stakeholders in the process, former COPE councillor Khayalandile Twalingca told the Daily Dispatch yesterday: “We are at the city hall as community representatives. We have a problem about the supply chain policy and credit control review which was done last week because not everyone was involved in the process.” — dispatch.co.za