The Western Cape training division says it can proceed to honour a R1.2 billion tender awarded by the State Data Expertise Company (Sita) even after a forensic report uncovered irregularities.
(Ezekiel Kenkana/GroundUp)
The Western Cape training division says it can proceed to honour a R1.2 billion tender awarded by the State Data Expertise Company (Sita) even after a forensic report uncovered irregularities.
“No authorized foundation at the moment exists to terminate the BNC [Blue Network Consortium] contract … Due to this fact the [department] will proceed to honour the contract until and till legitimate and substantiated causes exist to take steps to set the contract apart,” the Western Cape authorities’s authorized adviser, Ian Steyn, instructed parliament’s portfolio committee on primary training.
The tender was for work to broaden web providers in Western Cape faculties.
In March 2023, the Sita wrote to the Western Cape training division recommending that the tender be awarded to Blue Networks Consortium. In line with Steyn, the division then performed an inside course of and awarded the tender bid to the consortium on 19 Might 2023 for a most of R900 million.
However, 5 months after the contract was awarded, the Sita offered the division with a replica of a report by forensic legislation agency Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH) into irregularities within the Sita procurement course of.
The division appointed senior counsel to contemplate the findings, who mentioned “not one of the conclusions within the CDH report demonstrated any reviewable irregularities within the procurement course of”.
The Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr report flagged irregularities such because the submission of two pricing choices by Blue Networks Consortium and the disqualification of Dimension Knowledge and the Sita board’s course of for approving the advice for tenders.
“The choice to guage each value proposals submitted by Blue Networks and Infrastructure rendered the tender course of unfair, because the Request for Bid was unclear on whether or not bidders had been allowed to submit a couple of pricing choice,” mentioned Tendai Jangara, a director and lead of the company investigations workforce on the legislation agency.
Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr concluded that the method and awarding of the tender was “unfair and uncompetitive” as a result of bidders weren’t evaluated on an equal footing.
The provincial authorities has rejected the findings and mentioned it had “no adversarial implications” on the training division’s mandate.
However the Sita’s Luvuyo Keyise known as for the intervention of the Particular Investigating Unit (SIU) to dig deeper into the matter.
“It is likely to be greatest that the SIU appears deeper into this as a result of the present contract is continuous and one wouldn’t be stunned if something round 50% of the contracted worth would have been paid by now,” mentioned Keyise.