The Western Cape High Court gave the City six months to remedy the situation to enable it to make alternative arrangements for the lawful procurement of the services.
Cape Town - A tender process by the City of Cape Town for the procurement of “facilities management” at various ad hoc sites and council facilities was declared non-compliant and invalid.
On Thursday, the Western Cape High Court gave the City six months to remedy the situation to enable it to make alternative arrangements for the lawful procurement of the services.
Mayco member for Urban Mobility, Rob Quintas said they noted the judgment but would not comment on its outcome on Thursday.
“Given that judgment was only served today, we will need time to peruse the contents and unfortunately, cannot comment any further at this point in time,” said Quintas.
According to judgment, the City stands to incur an expenditure of about R700 million over a three-year period in connection with the tender for the “Provision of Facility and Cash Management Services in respect of selected public transport facilities, including MyCiti and Public Transport Interchanges.
All4Security Services, the first applicants in the matter, alleged that about 28% of that expenditure would be in respect of the provision of security services.
Enquiries made to the applicants were not answered by the deadline on Thursday.
The City’s Transport Directorate determined that it would be more efficient if a contract were to be concluded with a single contractor to manage and provide “all the necessary services (cleaning, maintenance, security and landscaping among others)’ at MyCiti and Public Transport Interchanges.
The applicants had taken the matter to court wanting a fresh procurement process to be done within a specified period.
“The City contended that the applicants could easily have searched the tender documentation, which was freely available on the internet on the City’s procurement portal, using the keyword ‘security’,” judgment read.
“The applicants’ retort was that there was nothing in the advertisement to alert their staff that undertaking the keyword search suggested by the City might be profitable. The applicants’ contention was that the advertisement was completely opaque.”
Judge Ashley Binns-Ward said Clause 156.2 of the City’s supply chain management policy was somewhat ambiguous.
“It might be construed to require the procurement functionary to set forth some particulars, but to leave it within the functionary’s discretion to decide on the nature and extent thereof.
Equally, it could be construed to imply that it was up to the City to decide in each case whether it considered it appropriate to advertise any particulars at all.”
Cape Times