Court rules on three key issues in tender award



25-01-2022
Read : 1313 times
Taranis
Source

In a recent judgment handed down in the Free State High Court, it was ruled that Centlec (SOC) Ltd, a state-owned enterprise, which distributes electricity to people in certain parts of the province, erroneously awarded a tender after the validity period has expired as well as incorrectly awarding points to the “successful bidder”, who also has failed to complete and submit the compulsory requirement, in relation to the pricing tender form.



Firstly, the Court ruled that the award of the tender to the “successful bidder” was irregular since Centlec, did not timeously request an extension from “All the relevant bidders”, and that such a failure on its part, made the bid process redundant.



The Court ruled that in the case where an extension is not requested prior to the expiry date of the bid validity period or where there is no extension requested at all, the organ of state is obliged to create a new bidding process.



Secondly, the Applicant in this matter argued that Centlec also irregularly applied the 80/20 preference point system, wherein it awarded the “successful bidder” the maximum of 80 points for being the “lowest price” and yet, it only supplied pricing for one month and not for the whole of the 36 months, as per the requirement of the bid document.



Thirdly, the Court agreed with the Applicant that the “successful bidder” also did not submit the compulsory pricing schedule, i.e., MBD3.3, which is a tender form used, to list pricing for professional services.



According to Gerrit Davids, Lead Advisor, TaranisCo Advisory, tendering agency, “It is imperative for bidders to ensure that when they receive a request for an extension in a tender, from an organ of state, that it makes sure that such a request was done, prior to the expiry date of the validity period.”



“Further, bidders have a right under the Constitution and other related Acts, to request the record of decision pertaining to the point-scoring results, in order to assess, whether they’ve been scored the correct points, for both price and their B-BBEE status, respectively.”



Davids says, “Lastly, bidders are advised to always complete the pricing schedule and not assume that other schedules in the bid document replace these tender forms, especially with Treasury having changed some of the forms and removed, the “total bid amount” on the invitation to bid form.”



Contact: Gerrit Davids. Lead Advisor | TaranisCo Advisory CC  Mobile. +27 (0) 82 496 1657 E-mail:  gerrit@taranisco.co.za or kindly visit our website: www.taranis.co.za for more details.



 

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