GOOD Press statement by Anton Louw,
GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor
27 October 2022
It seems “minor breaches” in the City of Cape Town’s procurement processes are preventing broader economic participation in areas where growth is desperately needed, and could even be used as loopholes for potential corruption and fraud.
In the month of August 2022, six “minor breaches” in the City’s tender processes were reported.
These breaches resulted in the correct tender processes not being followed and potential valid bidders from being excluded from possibly benefitting form the City’s procurement.
It’s concerning that the collective value of these tenders run up to R127 million, and yet simple guidelines in the Supply Chain Policy are not followed.
These included not advertising the tenders for the full required period of 30 days, because someone seems to have forgotten that the month February always has less than 30 days.
Furthermore, some tenders were not advertised on all the required platforms, which could lead to many potential bidders being excluded.
While these appear to be small mistakes, they fall short of very simple and standard regulations.
One needs to ask whether deliberate decisions were taken to deviate from the standard regulations, in the hopes that the “minor breaches” would go undetected.
Corruption, particular in tender processes, is rife in South Africa and minor, although seemingly intentional in some cases, breaches should be unacceptable.
Media Enquiries:
Anton Louw, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor
Cell: 0823773335
Email: anton@cisfs.co.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 0733671223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za