SANRAL would return to awarding routine road maintenance (RRM) contracts through individual open tenders after abandoning its panel procurement model, the roads agency said during a media briefing on Tuesday.
The decision follows the settlement of litigation relating to both SANRAL's RRM contractor panel and Category 2 engineering consultant panel after internal investigations identified procurement irregularities and the agency agreed to have the tender awards set aside.
SANRAL had opted to concede the court applications where legal advice indicated the agency had little prospect of success, rather than incur further costs, said Chief Executive, Reginald Demana. "The roads must continue to be maintained."
He said the agency had prepared the new tender documents and was conducting internal assurance processes before issuing the tenders in batches. A limited number had already been advertised in the Western Cape and Northern Cape.
SANRAL aims to appoint new RRM contractors by the end of November in line with a court settlement. Existing maintenance contracts were extended while the litigation was under way to ensure road maintenance continued.
Demana said SANRAL had learnt important lessons from the panel procurement process and had decided to revert to the procurement model it had used before introducing panels.
The agency's investigation identified several flaws in the RRM tender process, including the failure to require price competition, non-compliance with SANRAL's own tender procedures and shortcomings in the bid evaluation process. SANRAL also said preliminary investigations pointed to possible fraudulent conduct involving some bidders.
To support faster project delivery, SANRAL has introduced procurement reforms, including standing bid specification and evaluation committees, an expanded pool of adjudication committee members, strengthened internal assurance processes for high-value tenders and a consolidated delegations framework. Consequence management processes would also proceed where investigations identified the need for action, Demana said.
