Judge slams supplier of school books

In another Limpopo Education textbook saga, publisher Oxford University Press Southern Africa turned to the Pretoria High Court to review the Education Department’s procurement process for grades 7, 8, 9 and 12 textbooks for next year. Oxford argued that the department made errors in capturing textbook prices and that they were incorrectly ranked as the most expensive. The publisher asked the court to halt the entire ordering process pending the outcome of the review application. It wanted to Education Department to reconsider not engaging them to deliver a substantial number of the textbooks.

Judge Francis Legodi, in no uncertain terms, stated that he would not have set aside the tender process for the delivery of these textbooks, in favour of Oxford, as this would delay the delivery of the much needed books. But he said he did not have to make an order in this regard. This is because he, in any event, slammed Oxford on two preliminary points - he found that the publisher dragged its heels in launching this urgent application and that it should thus be struck from the roll due to urgency. A further reason why he struck the matter from the roll and ordered Oxford to pay all the legal costs, was because it asked for an order halting the whole process, while it never joined the other publishing houses in the application.

These are publishers who were granted the tender to supply the textbooks and who have in fact already started delivering at schools. The judge said it was clear that they had a substantial interest in this case and its outcome. “The applicant sought to only join certain publishers. Ten publishers have not been joined… This was a fatal blow to the applicant’s case,” he said. Oxford was one of the publishers selected to deliver certain textbooks to schools in Limpopo. According to the applicant, it was awarded to place orders only to the value of R1.6 million, instead of orders to the value of more than R40m. They claim there was an irregularity in the award of the tender which would cause the applicant loss of revenue of more than R40m for the 2014 school year and a further R32m over the following four years.

The applicant’s main contention was that the education authorities substituted its (the applicant’s) nil pricing on the teacher’s guides with a price which was previously tendered by the applicant. The judge, in this regard, said the tender procedures were clear that all the books had to be priced. He said offering the teachers guides for free, was unfair to the other publishers who followed the tender rules and priced this item. Judge Legodi also questioned the fact that the department adjusted the applicant’s pricing by adding a price for the teachers’ guides. He said the department was obliged to follow a fair system and by choosing to accommodate a tender which did not comply with a particular policy for a particular procurement, couldn’t be fair.

He said there were tight time frames in place for the delivery of the textbooks. Delivery started in June and is expected to be completed by October. He said the idea was that all the pupils would have received their books by the start of the school year next year. “It is a tender that has bearing on the education of learners in Limpopo… Orders were placed. About 1 673 495 out of 6 600 000 books had already been delivered… All of the textbook printing orders placed with the printing suppliers are already in production and are set to be completed by September 30.” The judge added that to set aside this tender would have catastrophic consequences, especially in light of the Limpopo textbook saga earlier this year.