OBJECTIONS to tender outcomes is not a weakness of the supply chain management policy, said Hibiscus Coast Municipality municipal manager, Max Mbili, at a media briefing held at the municipality’s council chambers on Tuesday.
“The municipality would like to indicate that lodging of objections on the tender outcomes is the right provided to unsuccessful bidders by section 49 and 50 of the supply chain management policy,” he explained.
He added that these sections provide a right to unsuccessful bidders to lodge objections on the outcomes of tender processes within 14 days after a decision has been taken with the accounting officer.
The accounting officer is regarded as a person who is eligible to deal with the objections independently due to the fact that the accounting officer is not the member of any bid committee in the supply chain management process.
If the objection is not resolved within 60 days the objection may be referred to the provincial treasury and if the provincial treasury has not resolved the objection it may be referred to national treasury.
“The municipality is however concerned that some unsuccessful bidders have resorted to contact the media before all the necessary processes are exhausted, thereby jeopardising the objections process,” said Mr Mbili.
He added that some unsuccessful bidders just object with no tangible reasons and this in itself delays service delivery unnecessarily.
“An earnest appeal is made to all bidders to familiarise themselves with these sections (49 and 50) and other important sections of the supply chain management policy. It is available on the municipal website, under documents then policies,” he concluded.
