Durban — In an arrangement between Crossmoor Transport and eThekwini Municipality, the City is alleged to have illegally awarded a close-to R100 million water tanker contract to the company and its five associates.
The City and Crossmoor are still involved in a protracted court battle over the awarding of the R90 million water tanker contract.
The allegedly illegal awarding of the contract is contained in a forensic report compiled by Nyaba Advisory Services for Nethezeka Trading, an aggrieved company that challenged the awarding of the contract.
Nethezeka was one of the 29 companies that bid for the work but was unsuccessful. The company director, Sandile Msomi from eThekwini, lodged an appeal against the award but was dismissed by the City. He then appointed a forensic firm, Nyaba Advisory Services, to investigate whether the contract was legally awarded or not.
The report, which was seen by the Daily News and was compiled earlier this month, concluded that there was indisputable evidence of tender rigging, misrepresentation and clear deviations from correct processes. It further found that the contract was not fair and equitable and that there was evidence of collusive bidding between the awarded bidders.
“It is our opinion that this contract should be set aside and reported to the relevant authorities that are dealing with collusive bidding/tendering as well as the National Treasury for blacklisting,” the report recommended.
Msomi said he suspected that by illegally awarding this contract to Crossmoor, the City was compensating the company because it deprived it of the R92 million contract the company had felt it had won last year.
The Daily News previously reported on a raging court battle between the City and Crossmoor over the same contract. The company managed to interdict the City last year but it was later set aside by court, and the City continued with the contract.
In this new contract, which was advertised only for five days according to the Nyaba report, the City awarded it to Crossmoor and four other companies that according to the report were owned by brother, sons, daughters and cousins of the Crossmoor owner (the paper has the names and directors of the companies, some of which share the same address as Crossmoor).
Msomi said that advertising the contract for only five days left suspicions that the awarding of the contract was predetermined and illegal.
The contract is for 12 months, which the report cited as irregularly awarded since it was advertised in the supplier self-service portal (SSS) which only caters for tenders less than R200 000. Msomi said he had given the report to the City and it has 14 days to act on it or he will take the matter to court.
Crossmoor’s attorney, Ronette Govender, denied her client’s company was illegally awarded a contract. She also denied that there was a collusion by her client and companies that are owned by her client’s relatives. She said it was a coincidence because all the companies that got the contract had disclosed the relationship to one another during the bidding process.
“The companies may be owned by relatives but you will be surprised that they were bitter rivals when it comes to bidding for work,” said Govender.
She also denied that the contract was of the “eat here and keep quiet” variety since her client was still pursuing the old contract award in court.
eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said the forensic report has not been officially brought to the attention of the City Integrity and Investigations Unit (CIIU) for investigation, and that Nyaba Advisory Services was not outsourced by eThekwini Municipality to carry out any investigation.
She said: “Seemingly, Nyaba Advisory Services was hired by the aggrieved tenderer Nethezeka Trading in its private capacity, which appears to be appealing against the awarding of the contract in question. Should the matter be formally brought forward to the municipality for investigation, the CIIU will investigate the matter objectively, to root out any instances of fraud and corruption within the organisation.”
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