Baipoledi in hot soup over P1.8bn tender blunder
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday November 11, 2024 16:56
This he told Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands and Water Affairs, Dr Kekgonne Baipoledi, who was at pains to explain how his ministry ended up awarding a tender worth P1.8 billion, which was supposed to have been disqualified at the technical stage of bidding. Justice Lebotse said during a hearing held after hours this past Monday that it was clear that Baipoledi abused his powers in awarding China Civil Engineering Construction a tender for provision of works for the detailed design and construction of Gantsi South and Kgalagadi North villages’ water supply project.
The Works Contract will include the following: a) Six boreholes plus raw water collector mains from Ncojane Well field to the Ncojane Water Distribution Centre; b) Construction of the Ncojane Well field Distribution Centre (NWDC) comprising a water treatment plant, raw and clear water storages (2,000m³ and 20,000m³ reinforced concrete tanks respectively); c) three pumping stations (1 duty/1 standby pumps) and associated works; d) Approximately 482km of pipework ranging in size from 110-500mm diametre for Kgalagadi North and villages of Ncojane and Kule in Gantsi South; e) four small booster stations; f) 15 village storage tanks ranging in size from 50m³-2,000m³; g) Associated Communication, Control & Commissioning, Access Roads and Other Ancillary Works. The Project construction duration will be 24 months and defects notification period will be 18 months, while the Invitation to Tender (ITT) stipulated that for a bidder to proceed, they must score 60% in each category. It all started on April 4, 2023 when the ministry floated the tender, which eventually had six bidders, being a Joint Venture of China Civil Engineering and Zonghang (referred to here as China Civil Engineering) and bidder six, a Joint Venture between Landmark, G4 and Asphalt (Tawana JV) making it to the technical stage and eventually to the financial stage. Despite Tawana having passed all the stages and making a lesser costing bid, China Civil was set to be awarded the tender. This led to Tawana JV taking up the matter with the tribunal, which eventually led to Baipoledi and other senior officials from the ministry whisked before the tribunal. Deliberating on the matter, the judges pointed out that Baipoledi and the procurement manager at the Ministry Ruth Ntshubiwa had abused their powers by awarding the tender to the non-deserving bidder who failed crucial stages and had also bid for an amount higher by over P200 million. “Bidder five got 56%, bidder six got 88.33% for one category. How did the company eventually proceed and win the tender?” Lebotse quizzed. Baipoledi and his team, being pressed by the tribunal, could not give any plausible answers seeming as if they had just seen the tender documents.
They, however, ended up admitting that in terms of the ITT, what they did was wrong. Justice Lebotse said he hoped accounting officers would learn from the proceedings. “I hope from today, you have learnt something. The whole purpose of bringing in this Act, or a new regime of public procurement, was to make sure it is fair so that the public can have confidence and trust in it. But it looks like accounting officers do not understand that there is a new system in place and is very clear what should be done. If you don’t follow that process, and the matters come here, the outcome, even before we go far will become clear,” Justice Lebotse said. He further expressed concern that it seems like accounting officers neglect their duties despite the buck stopping with them. “So I hope PS, when you are with your colleagues over tea, you will tell them that there is need to take matters of procurement very seriously as procuring entities and that accounting officers must really take serious interest in this thing. This could have been long picked before the matter was brought here, infact, the time the matter was reported.
'We are talking about millions here and tenders with a staggering difference. That should cause you to be very careful especially when you want to prefer someone with a very high figure. That should cause you to be more vigilant. You should not under delegate or over delegate. Take the comments very serious. In some instances PS you know we have made decisions that awarded damage against Procuring Entities because people are lax in following procedure. ITT should be properly constructed,” he concluded Judgment in the matter was set to be released in 10 days from the date of hearing.