Tenders – procedures must be followed

Doug Grewar, AbaQulusi Residents Association (ARA) Secretary, writes:-
THE ARA has had a complaint from a local contractor about the awarding of the High Street road over railway bridge contract. The contract was advertised and 14 contractors were present at the briefing. However, only eight contractors had submitted their tenders by the closing date.
The local contractors have to date not been informed in writing, as per tender procedure, of the outcome of this tender No. 8/2/1/221 that was submitted on the closing date of October 4, 2013. The Vryheid Herald has mentioned in the last two editions that the bridge contract has been awarded to an unnamed contractor and that site establishment has started.
The local contractors feel that they are being undermined, because it is required by law that before a contract is finally awarded, the name of the selected contractor must be formally announced and an objection period must be granted to the losing contractors.
Only after this objection period can the contract be officially awarded. No proper announcement was made and therefore the local contractors were kept in the dark and could not make any objection. Contractors are required to follow the correct tender procedures, and to be fair these procedures should also be followed by the clients.
[The above letter was sent to the municipality for comment. At the time of going to press, none had been received.Editor.]