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Vusumuzi Dube, Business Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council is going ahead with their controversial parking meter tender and has so far shortlisted two companies’ proposals for consideration despite having a legal battle hanging above their heads.
The parking management services tender had to be cancelled in 2012 after what the local authority termed “a shambolic tendering process”. However, this was after the local authority had already awarded the tender to Megalithic Marketing Private Limited.
This then followed a long legal battle, which saw Megalithic taking the council to court challenging the cancellation of the tender. According to court documents the local authority has a pending contempt of court case after Megalithic approached the courts arguing that the council failed to adhere to a court ruling awarding them the tender.
Last Wednesday the local authority resolved to shortlist Ducretion Logistics private limited and Lauvax Trading private limited trading as Propark. The companies will now share different sites within the city and are expected to commence work immediately.
According to the latest council report the two companies had both submitted proposals for the implementation of the parking management system in the city, with another — NganduBiz trading as MSP Parking only submitting a letter of intent.
NganduBiz’s letter of intent was thrown out as it reportedly lacked enough detail to be evaluated against the other two proposals.
“Other than the issue of the missing information, Duscretion Logistics Private Limited and Lauvax Trading Private Limited trading as ProPark submitted detailed proposals which clearly demonstrated how they intended to execute the parking management system within the city,” reads the report.
The two companies have been mandated to now provide copies of original documents defining the constitution or legal status, place of registration, and written power of attorney of the signatory of the bid to commit the bidder, details of work underway or contractually committed and reports on the financial standing of the bidder.
They also have to provide the local authority with evidence of adequacy of working capital for the contract and information regarding any litigation, current or during the last five years, in which the bidder is involved.
The tender which has taken six years to be implemented was only revived last month after Ward Six councillor, James Sithole filed a motion where he noted that the legal wrangle was now almost at its end hence they should re-tender the project to help enhance revenue collection and service delivery.
“In an effort to boost revenue for the City of Bulawayo, we flighted a tender more than six years ago for Parking Management Services from reputable companies. Due to some irregularities in the process this matter ended up in the courts . . . Bulawayo City Council has therefore lost several opportunities such as 400 jobs that could have been created, meaning the survival of 400 households and parking revenue in the region of $10 million.
“I propose that council proceeds as a matter of urgency to re-tender for the parking management services since the legal wrangle has been concluded so that we can achieve revenue enhancement and improved service delivery,” reads part of the motion.
The initial shambolic bidding process brought the city’s tendering system under scrutiny, with accusations of corruption among councillors and directors flying around.
First, Easipark, the South African company that was favourite to clinch the parking deal, was disqualified on allegations of attempting to bribe members of the procurement board to swing the bid in its favour.
The company was readmitted and the tendering process re-done after consultations among stakeholders.
Easipark was disqualified again, after it failed to attend a compulsory tender briefing meeting, which then saw Megalithic being awarded the tender.
Councillors then accused former Deputy Mayor, Amen Mpofu, of championing the Easipark cause.
derick.khumalo