Pretoria - The R4 billion fleet management contract has been tainted with yet another controversy following allegations that the City of Tshwane failed to collect landfill fees estimated at R135 million from service providers responsible for waste removal.
As part of the contract, the service providers for waste collection vehicles were expected to pay a disposal fee to the municipality.
Insiders told the Pretoria News that the metro had allowed service providers for waste collection vehicles to continue operating for almost 11 months without adhering to certain terms and conditions of the contract, which include paying a disposal fee.
The Pretoria News has seen correspondence dated May 5, 2022, written by acting divisional head for waste management Alice Mphahlele to service providers, who were reminded of payments for landfill fees.
“This serves as the last reminder to make an appointment with our office for arrangement for payment of landfill fees. The last day to discuss payment arrangements for landfill fees will be May 6, 2022,” Mphahlele wrote.
Mayoral spokesperson Sipho Stuurman did not respond to questions related to unpaid landfill fees except to say they were “getting attention”.
The landfill fees are part of the terms and conditions of the contract, especially that waste collection vehicles should pay a disposal fee to the municipality.
“All vehicles that… render waste management services will be expected to pay to use City of Tshwane landfill. Bidders are therefore required to take into account all the applicable costs relating to the provision of this service,” the contract said.
The contract, also known as SS04, was nullified by the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. Attempts by the City to lodge an application for leave to appeal were dismissed with costs.
However, the Pretoria News understands that the City has initiated another process of appealing the ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeal.
The controversial tender, which was awarded in August 2021, focused on the corporate hire of general construction vehicles, yellow plant equipment, refuse removal vehicles, specialised equipment and machines for the City. A company, JL Excavators (Pty) Ltd, successfully challenged in court the awarding of the contract, which was found to have flouted tender procurement regulations.
In dismissing the City’s application for leave to appeal, the court found there were several serious irregularities in the awarding of the tenders. “These irregularities go to the heart of the requirement that a tender must be awarded in accordance with a system which Section 217 of the Constitution provides is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective.”
The court said the tender process had been designed to ensure a fair process, which “cannot be adjusted or changed midstream”. “Once the bid evaluation time has lapsed, there is nothing to extend. This includes the various phases of assessment.
“In this case, even after the lapse of the bid evaluation period, the mandatory phase of the procurement process continued. The functionality phase relating to the documentation of the vehicles and the financing of the vehicles continued. All that should have been completed before the award of the tender,” it said.
The same tender was not new to controversy. In December 2020, the City halted the awarding of the tender, citing possible collusion involving officials and contract bidders after the bidding process was flagged by a Nexus Forensic Services report. At least 71 public servants were found to have either direct or indirect conflicts of interest in the bidding process.
According to the forensic report, at least 35 bidding entities were found to be in the wrong for sharing directorships and for failing to disclose their status in the bidding documents, which smacked of collusive practice.
Pretoria News