Red tape strangling service delivery
Shortage of disaster relief packages after fire puts spotlight on bottlenecks at Bay’s supply chain management unit
It has taken the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality more than two years to try to wrap up a tender for disaster relief packages — with the process stuck at the last hurdle for the past two months.
This is just one example of the mountain of red tape strangling service delivery in the city as tenders are often stuck at the city’s supply chain management unit as a result of delays in issuing tender IDs for projects and purchasing goods.
The shortage of disaster relief packages came to the fore last week when the municipality was unable to assist families in Walmer township after a fire broke out.
Also, at the safety and security department, tenders for fire and emergency software licensing, sewer grit and screening and the supply of protective equipment and body armour have been in limbo for years.
The energy and electricity department is struggling with a shortage of material for temporary electricity connections while the public health department is grappling with tree maintenance issues and hiring specialist consultants for waste disposal sites.
The backlog is being caused by the supply chain management unit and the slow turnaround to issue tender IDs, according to several political heads of departments.
But budget and treasury political head Kabelo Mogatotsi said there were no tender documents “stuck” at the supply chain management unit and that if issues caused delays it could not be attributed to specific officials.
“I’m not aware of the concerns of tender IDs in different directorates,” he said.
“Ordinarily people would say in layman’s terms documents are stuck at the supply chain and that term is used very loosely and is not specific to what the issue is.”
Mogatotsi said the city had a list of issues in the supply chain and a report was sent to city manager Noxolo Nqwazi and mayor Retief Odendaal which was updated monthly.
“I have established that we look into the list weekly.
“I’ve gone through the contracts that are with the supply chain for various reasons and I’ve not seen one that has no tender ID, the ones you refer to could’ve been subjected to minor issues.”
Mogatotsi said there were different reasons for what caused the delays and some of them had nothing to do with the supply chain management unit but rather lengthy tender processes.
“Sometimes, there has been an appeal that has to be taken to the relevant committee which can take a long time, at times there are issues of litigation and SCM can’t proceed, and at other times we have to wait for the signatures of those who have been awarded the tenders.”
He said one of the biggest issues that affected the unit was the critical vacancies that needed to be filled, especially in contracts management.
The tender process for the disaster relief packages started in November 2020 and was eventually approved in November last year by the bid adjudication committee, according to a leaked email.
An objection was received a month later but this was resolved in January.
However, safety and security political head Lawrence Troon said a tender ID from the supply chain management unit was still needed before the
goods could be acquired. On the recent fire, Troon said: “The acting executive director, Warren Prins, said we could not assist because the tender for disaster is not yet fnalised.
“All ward councillors are dependent on these relief packages to assist people in communities, but up until now there’s no tender ID for it.”
A tender ID gives suppliers the authority to buy goods on behalf of the metro and store them in municipal depots so there are adequate reserves.
The leaked email was sent to Nqwazi, Odendaal and chief financial officer Selwyn Thys on Sunday, requesting the prioritisation of the disaster relief packages.
The correspondence also reveals there is immense pressure from councillors and an outcry from residents who do not understand why the metro does not have disaster relief packages to assist people in need.
Troon said he had been complaining for months about the issue.
“There are people at supply chain management who are holding the municipality at ransom and rendering departments useless,” he said.
He blamed Thys for not cracking the whip on officials causing the problems.
Thys did not respond to a request for comment. The issue of tender IDs has been a sore point raised at committee meetings by concerned councillors, who are left to account to residents for work not done or incomplete projects in communities.
Energy and electricity political head Lance Grootboom said one of the biggest problems the city faced was the supply chain management unit.
He said his department had a number of items stuck and it could take months, or even years, for them to be processed when only minor work such as drafting a service level agreement, appointment letters or tender IDs was required.
The time frame, he said, should be about three days at most.
“The biggest issue in my department is with temporary electricity connections, our storerooms keep material for our electricians and contractors to do work, however, we can’t procure anything else that is required to do electrical connections,” he said.
Grootboom said the issues could either be incompetence or a protected interest of other businesses.
“The entire institution is held at ransom by supply chain management and nothing is done to hold those responsible accountable,” he said.
“This has a huge effect on our key performance indicators and turnaround time to resolve service delivery issues.
“We can’t meet those demands because we are dependent on another department such as supply chain management and the budget and treasury department is dragging its feet.
“It’s not that the city has no money, it’s the procurement of goods that’s the problem.”
Infrastructure and engineering political head Dries van der Westhuizen said the situation at supply chain management made it difficult for contractors to get paid for work done, which posed a problem.
“Our service delivery is suboptimal because of problems at supply chain management, but you also can’t blame those who are reluctant to sign documents for huge sums of money because we have many fraud and corruption cases and they are scared of getting implicated.”
Van der Westhuizen said it was for this reason that the political leadership had sourced the assistance of the National Treasury to assist officials reluctant to sign certain documents.
Public health political head Thsonono Buyeye said there were several service delivery tenders in his department that were affected by problems at the unit that included horticultural services.
“Supply chain management is without a doubt the cornerstone of service delivery,” he said.
“The delays caused during the supply chain bidding processes, especially the evaluation of bids, affect public health negatively, which in turn may contribute to continued deviations.
“There are several tenders that are affected, including the horticultural service for tree maintenance and non-commissioning of specialist consultants for our waste disposal sites that will result in noncompliance with permit conditions, among other things.”