Tender for leasing Tshwane vehicles to be concluded in next 3 weeks

The awarding of a multimillion-rand tender for leasing a fleet of vehicles in the Tshwane metro would be concluded within the next three weeks.

The fleet included general construction vehicles, yellow plant machines, specialised vehicles and refuse removal vehicles. Concerns were raised this week that the City's ability to deliver services was likely to be hampered after the contract expired on August 31. The municipality relied largely on leased vehicles for rendering services such as refuse removal and repairing water leaks.

The process to replace the old tender was previously dogged with numerous delays attributed partly to challenges related to the bid specifications. Chief administrator Mpho Nawa said a process of advertising the replacement tender started in August last year "to demonstrate the City’s eagerness to conclude the adjudication of the contract timeously".

"Owing to a number of challenges with respect to the bid specifications, the tender had to be re-advertised no less than three times," he said. By the time the tender, which came into effect in 2015, lapsed in July, the City had not appointed new service providers. This week Nawa said more than 700 companies applied to bid for the latest tender.

"Whilst it is regrettable that the new tender was not awarded prior to the lapsing of the old tender, the City has done everything possible to ensure that the process was concluded in time and that it was above board," he said. Nawa said the City was currently in the process of concluding the supply chain process to award the replacement tender.

According to him, more delays could be attributed to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, "including having had a member of the evaluation team testing positive for the coronavirus". "All these, cumulatively, impacted the timelines and ability to finish the evaluation and adjudication of the tender on time," Nawa said.

He reiterated the City was urgently concluding the engagement of service providers within the provisions of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and supply chain management (SCM) regulations to ensure continuation of services. Meanwhile, it emerged there were disruptions in services experienced on Monday and Tuesday due to unavailability of vehicles.

Nawa said the City management was working around the clock to ensure that there was no vacuum in respect of the provision of service delivery. "The City will soon update the residents on the catch-up schedule to ameliorate the regrettable disruptions in services experienced on Monday and Tuesday," he said.

He said the City was urgently concluding the engagement of service providers within the provisions of the MFMA and SCM regulations to avoid further disruptions in services. "It is anticipated that the awarding of the new tender will be concluded within the next three weeks,” he said.