Another IPTS tender scandal
Three contracts worth R100m put on hold
THE roll-out of Nelson Mandela Bay’s bus system has again been delayed after it emerged that information regarding three tenders worth R100-million was leaked before the contracts were advertised. Infrastructure and engineering head Walter Shaidi said the municipality was finalising specifications for three tenders when it discovered that the information had been leaked to a service provider.
The three tenders were for the supply of information technology systems and radios for security.
Shaidi said yesterday officials in his department reported the matter to the internal audit department to investigate.
In a report to the infrastructure, engineering and energy portfolio committee meeting, Shaidi said: “The three tenders – two ICT (information and communications technology) and one radio tender for safety and security – with a combined value of R100-million are waiting for approval from the [bid] specification committee.
“The tenders went to the specifications committee at the beginning of April 2013 but were stopped by [supply chain management] due to tender information being leaked to one of the service providers before being advertised.”
He told councillors: “It was a surprise when we heard that a lady had the specifications of the tender that still had to be advertised. Internal audit is investigating the matter to see what went wrong.”
‘ Internal audit is investigating the matter to see what went wrong
This is set to delay the roll-out of the Integrated Public Transport System even further and affect the city’s spending patterns, as it awaits a response from the Treasury on whether or not it can roll over the R 293-million grant it failed to spend in the 2012-13 financial year.
About R174-million is also locked up in a lawsuit between the municipality and Lumen Technologies, the company contracted to install display technology on the buses and to build a transport operating centre. The court case was postponed in August and a new court date has not been set.
In his report to the committee, Shaidi said the court case involving Lumen had impacted negatively on spending and delayed the building of the R100-million transport operating centre.
Meanwhile, Shaidi said seven other infrastructure projects had been delayed because the tender committees did not meet often enough. Some of the tenders were delayed by about 16 months due to changes of the members who sit on the technical evaluation committee.
Some contracts are for companies to assess the condition of and to rehabilitate sewer infrastructure. Others are for the surfacing of gravel roads and upgrading the Elandsjagt water treatment works’ pumps and filters.
“The time delays between the tender being opened and the pre-evaluation is too lengthy. Subsequent to the pre-evaluation taking place ... it then requires a technical evaluation,” Shaidi said.
“This process is done by the same [bid evaluation committee] members. Officials are finding it difficult to sit for the technical evaluation of contracts due to the BEC not providing dates.”