Chronicle Editor
Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Correspondent
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC), which lost more than $300 000 to Harare companies in an ambulance tender deal in 2010, has issued another tender for the supply of six ambulances, demanding delivery of the fleet first before effecting payment.
The municipality yesterday said interested bidders can tender to supply the local authority with six minibus ambulances. This follows the botched 2010 deal in which council entered into a $340 000 deal with Axis Medical Corporation, a Harare company, for the supply of ambulances.
The number of ambulances that were supposed to be supplied could not be established immediately after council paid the company $205 000 and it then disappeared without delivering the ambulances.
During that time, the municipality also awarded a tender to Tracat Engineering to the tune of $500 000 to install a vehicle tracking system for council in 2010.
It paid $100 000 to the company to start the job, but the firm also vanished without delivering.
In an interview yesterday, Bulawayo Mayor Councillor Martin Moyo said this time around council has tightened the screening process for bidders to curb losses.
He said it will be dereliction of duty for the municipality to lose in a similar fashion twice.
“Once beaten twice shy. Through adjudication the screening will be thorough so that we don’t end up with bogus bidders who take our money and fail to supply,” said Clr Moyo.
The mayor said the business environment has changed since the time council was duped in 2010. “The other time when we were duped, there was a currency shortage and many companies wanted to be paid in advance. Now it’s a normal situation we pay on delivery as opposed to the past when companies requested an advance payment for them to process the order. But now this is not going to happen. We will pay on delivery,” said the mayor.
“We will not allow briefcase companies to get into the system because they are like weevils. They must be prevented from spoiling everything. The screening is going to be thorough this time.”
He conceded that the council will not recover the money it lost to the briefcase companies that it can no longer locate.
“Yes that’s why we went to court. We lost to those companies. We lost to the tender of ambulances and tracking system. The companies disappeared, ran aground and cannot be located. We are still pursuing the matter up today. But we know it’s a lost cause,” Clr Moyo said.
@nqotshili
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