Cape Town - A Western Cape High Court judgment in the review of a tender for the rehabilitation of sewers has clarified how the City should determine qualification criteria for tender processes governed by Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) regulations.
The dispute arose out of the City’s rejection of a tender submitted by JK Structures CC.
The invitation to tender issued by the City was directed at procuring up to three contractors to undertake the work as and when required over a three-year period.
The bid initiation documentation showed that the City estimated that it could spend as much as R180 million on the work in the stipulated period.
The invitation to tender issued by the City stipulated that tenderers were required to be contractors registered in terms of the CIDB Act with a minimum grading of 7CE.
This determination disqualified JK Structures and other smaller contractors from being appointed to a panel of contractors contracted to undertake construction work that each did not exceed R6 million.
This despite the fact argued in court that JK Structures had previously been contracted, apparently satisfactorily, to render the selfsame type of construction work in terms of an immediately preceding framework contract with the City.
Judge Ashley Binns-Ward said: “The required grading stipulated by the City for the equivalent framework contracts in the preceding term when JK Structures had successfully tendered to be appointed to the panel from which the works project contractors had been selected had been 4CE.
“Indeed, the bid specification committee established to determine the specifications for the tender currently in issue also initially fixed a 4CE grading requirement.”
The City’s counsel argued that notwithstanding the limits on the maximum anticipated value of the individual construction works contracts to be concluded during the three-year term of the framework agreement, the “tender value” was R180m.
The judge declared the City’s process in the matter of this specific tender to have been invalid and set it aside.