Councillors are at each other's throats over tender

by Staff Reporter

2013 January 04 01:47:37 | 3496 Views

BULAWAYO City councillors are at each other's throats over the awarding of a tender to a private contractor for the servicing of stands at Emhlangeni medium density suburb.

According to the latest council report, the local authority has awarded a tender to Stelix Engineering to service 391 stands at the new suburb.

The development has sparked an outcry with some councillors saying the process of awarding the tender was fraught with irregularities.

Ward 15 councillor Israel Mabaleka warned that the manner in which the tender had been handled might backfire on the council.

"The awarding to Stelix Engineering was against professional legal advice and this could cause problems for council.

"The company had not been fully responsive in that it had failed to submit all the required documentation," said Clr Mabaleka.

"Council should not ignore professional advice on such matters. It was important for council to follow the correct procedures and thus protect itself from potential harassment or reprisals over its actions."

Clr Mabaleka said he was totally opposed to the recommendation of the Municipal Procurement Board and requested that his dissention be noted if council insisted on adopting the tender recommendation.

He was seconded by Ward Seven Clr James Sithole who said there was a possibility that the director of Engineering Services, Engineer Simela Dube's recommendation to the procurement board was based on incorrect information.

Ward 25 Clr Edward Ndlovu concurred, saying council should stick to required procedure and be thorough in assessing contractors before awarding tenders.

"Council should be certain that the procedure was followed and all the required paper work as detailed in the tender documents was submitted. Council should not work on assumption," said Clr Ndlovu.

Deputy Mayor and councillor for Ward Two Amen Mpofu, however, defended the contractor, saying the findings of the adjudication committee appeared to have been tampered with at some stage.

"Stelix had been awarded contracts in the past and had performed satisfactorily. In this case they were the cheapest and had offered the most favourable terms. There was a need for objectivity on this matter," he said.

In favour of the tender Ward Three Clr Martin Moyo and his Ward 20 counterpart Clr Earnest Rafomoyo said the procurement board had probably considered the fact that Stelix Engineering were cheaper and that the required top up by the beneficiary would be much less.

Ward Six Clr Jennifer Bent called for circumspection and strict adherence to procedures, arguing that the matter might come back to haunt council in future.

Ward 14 Clr Phinias Ndlovu weighed in and questioned the last minute disqualification of Stelix Engineering.

"If the company had been non-responsive it should have been discarded at the very onset. The fact that this was not done shows that the company in fact had all the legitimate paper work and was fully responsive," said Clr Ndlovu.

The councillor for Ward 10, Prince Dube, who also chairs the procurement board, said the awarding of the tender was done in a fair and transparent manner.

He said the matter was debated extensively at the committee level and ruled out any procedural irregularities.

Ward 19 Clr Clayton Zana also concurred and declared his support for the procurement board's recommendation.

The council has dominated headlines with controversy over tenders amid allegations of corruption involving senior council officials.

Early last month, a senior council engineer was taken for a disciplinary hearing after he allegedly "corruptly" issued a completion certificate to a contractor for work that had not been done.

Recently, the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Dr Ignatius Chombo, said Government was considering revoking procurement powers from local authorities in a bid to bring sanity to the tendering section.

The Minister's stance has, however, been criticised by several stakeholders who complained over the centralisation of tender processes through the State Procurement Board.

BCC

Source: TC