The eThekwini Municipality’s supply chain management unit staff who had failed to put contracts out to tender must be disciplined.
|||Durban - The eThekwini Municipality’s supply-chain management unit staff who had failed to put multimillion-rand contracts out to tender must be disciplined.
The call was made by members of the city’s executive committee in response to reports from the unit asking for permission to use the controversial Section 36 policy to bypass the normal tender processes to award a number of contracts for critical services.
These included the failure to award tenders for spares and services, tyres, quarry products, and for the supply and delivery of fuel for the city’s fleet of more than 5 000 vehicles.
The committee was faced with little choice at its meeting on Tuesday but to agree to a recommendation that about R11.6 million be spent on fuel a month, without the contract going out to tender.
The unit asked permission to continue to buy fuel from the existing supplier for the next 12 months, until the new tender was awarded.
According to a report tabled before committee, the unit had awarded the contract to the current supplier for a period of 60 months in August 24, 2005, which meant the contract would have expired on September 30, 2010.
However, the deal had been continued as a result of an agreement in the contract, stating that it would continue indefinitely until terminated by either party on month’s calendar notice.
In the same report, it was indicated that the specification for the new contract would be submitted to the city’s bid specification committee by the end of April.
Deputy mayor Nomvuzo Shabalala said whoever was responsible for the failure to finalise the tender for such a crucial and lucrative contract should be disciplined.
“How do you omit such a big thing for the city? It looks like sabotage. It means this person wants to collapse the city.
“They need to be dealt with,” she said.
“Why the delay. This person has to be the laziest person, I have ever seen,” she said.
She asked for city treasurer Krish Kumar to deal with the people responsible. “We just can’t accept this,” she said.
Mayor James Nxumalo said the monthly amount of fuel being used, showed there was abuse.
He called for those responsibleto be disciplined.
City manager S’bu Sithole said there was blatant non-compliance.
“This is beyond negligence,” he said. The Minority Front’s Patrick Pillay called for full disclosure on the matter.
Councillor Nigel Gumede said some of the delays were done deliberately.
“We need to deal with these people,” he said.
mpume.madlala@inl.co.za
Daily News