A simple phone call could have saved the municipality more than a million rands – and might have seen work already under way on a recreational facility, desperately needed to help uplift a neglected part of town.
A simple phone call could have saved the municipality more than a million rands – and might have seen work already under way on a recreational facility, desperately needed to help uplift a neglected part of town.
Makana Municipality faces a hefty legal bill as they prepare to withdraw a contract they've awarded to one construction company and give it to a different operation that a judge deemed to have been treated unfairly. It also means the community will have to wait a bit longer for the Extension 6 multi-purpose sports centre to be built.
A court order granted by Judge Duncan Zolani Dukada earlier this month means the municipality must reconsider a tender bid by VDZ Construction to build the centre. The company had been disqualified in the final stages of the bid-adjudication process, because one of the documents it submitted was a photocopy instead of the original.
As explained to Grocott's Mail by CEO of VDZ Construction, Pelelani Ngcuka, one of the tender requirements was a valid billing clearance certificate from their local municipality. The Buffalo City Municipality, where VDZ is based, had sent a copy of one of the documents, rather than the original, and it had been on this basis that VDZ's tender was disqualified.
The tender, worth R27.6 million, was instead awarded to MG Mopp Construction. Judge Dukada accepted the argument put forward by advocate Torquil Paterson, saying, "I fully agree with Mr Paterson SC, that a quick direct telephone call by first respondent [Makana Municipality] to a sister municipality, Buffalo City Municipality, could have revealed the truth.
"It would also have been fair, in my view, to have allowed the Applicant [VDZ Construction] to correct the obvious mistake of filing a copy instead of the original of Page 2 of the Municipal Billing Clearance Certificate." The judgment noted that VDZ construction had scored higher and had bid almost R1 million less than the winning tender.
"In my view, condonation of the applicant's failure to furnish a full original Municipal Billing Certificate would have served the public interest, as it would have facilitated competition among the tenders. It also would have promoted the values of fairness, competitiveness and cost-effectiveness which are listed in Section 217 of the Constitution," said Judge Dukada, ordering the municipality to reconsider the award of the tender, based on those already accepted by them as compliant, and including the tender of VDZ Construction.
"We have given the municipality 14 days to comply with the court order," Ngcuka said this week. He said the project was to have been completed next month. According to a Makana Technical Services report, dated 1 August, the project is proposed to draw locals and tourists to an area identified by the Makana Township Regeneration Strategy as a sports and heritage node.
It is envisaged as becoming a "prominent feature that will face-lift the old Egazini Outreach Project currently operating in the former apartheid-era police station, the Indoor Sports Centre, Abet and the sports fields in Extension 5 across the Makana Road".
Makana Municipal Spokesperson Thandy Matebese said their understanding of the judgment was that the tender applications submitted for the construction of the multi purpose would be reconsidered, including the one from VDZ Construction.
