Fani tries to account for BCM tender chaos

Buffalo City Metro’s (BCM) city manager Andile Fani said the award of tenders was sometimes delayed because of the workload of the tender committees and threats made against committee members. 

Speaking at a council meeting last week, Fani also said the leaking of information to potential service providers and threats against some members had resulted in resignations by committee members and delaying the tender approval processes. He said the situation was so serious members of BCM’s bid evaluation and adjudication committees were living in fear of losing their lives after receiving threats over their decisions during committee sittings. “Some are confronted on the streets and some tell me they don’t feel safe serving on the committees because information coming out of those committee meetings is leaked to potential service providers,” he said. “Some find themselves being confronted by service providers about certain decisions or certain issues that had been raised in the bid adjudication committee. “Some would say they are approached by service providers who tell them this is what you said in the bid adjudication committee about my tender that is there. They just don’t take kindly to that,” Fani added. 

According to Fani, the metro was constantly “persuading and pleading” with committee members to stay on, but it was a struggle to keep some on board. “Just recently, one member pleaded with me that at the end of the financial year which ended in June, he be released.” 

The city manager also revealed the city faced legal challenges due to the awarding of tenders to companies whose names appear on attendance registers while in reality they never attended tender briefings. He said that led to companies which attended briefings, challenging the awarding in court and thus stalling project completion. “That really us backwards.” 

BCM’s political parties expressed concerns over the leaking of information from these committees and the threats made.  The DA’s chief whip Kevin Mileham said that the “forced resignation" of committee members would deeply impact on service delivery. “This is going to slow the process down, but as the DA, we believe the first step in ensuring trustworthy procurement processes is to open up the bid evaluation and adjudication process to public scrutiny. “Only by allowing everyone sight of the process can we ensure corruption and maladministration are rooted out,” said Mileham.

ANC and council chief whip Sangweni Matwele said investigations needed to be conducted.
“More than what the city manager had told us, we still need more information on the matter and thus investigations will be conducted,” said Matwele. 

Source: Daily Dispatch