Africa-Press – Gambia. The KMC did not conform to best practices when awarding contracts for the construction of three markets in the municipality, LG commission heard last week.
Director of Procurement Policy and Operations at GPPA, Ebrima Sanyang, told the commission that KMC contravened the laws when it opted to engage in a prequalification review of bidders for the construction of Bakoteh fish market, Latrikunda Sabiji and Abuko Sandika markets.
According to him, KMC had informed the GPPA that it was not relying on public money to bankroll the construction projects and that it was going to enter a private/public partnership to erect the structures.
He said the council has written to GPPA to seek approval of the projects.
“KMC wrote to GPPA, seeking approval of the project. In the letter, KMC indicated that they will first engage in a process where they did prequalification of the bidders. After the prequalification, they will then begin engaging the companies in negotiation,”Sanyang stated.
However, according to Mr. Sanyang, that practice ran contrary to acceptable standards and it was wrong for KMC to adopt it. He explained that the GPPA had informed the council that its request could not be entertained without supporting documents such as a signed copy of GPPA 012, signed minutes of the contracts committee of KMC, bidding documents, and national requisition form. The GPPA, he went on, requested the conduct of a feasibility study and recommended the use of an open tender to encourage competition among bidders.
“The Mayor of KMC had established a task force on market minutes to look into the idea of the project. The task force went ahead and launched an expression of interest otherwise known as a Request for Proposal for the market infrastructure project and they received only one bid submission from Finish Profile. The task force later recommended the use of open tender instead of the Request for Proposal they were using. The open tender lasted for only 10 days,” he testified.
“Ten days may not be sufficient. The period is supposed to be 30 days,”Sanyang adduced.
Sanyang said KMC was supposed to obtain approval for the market projects from GPPA but it did not. He explained that GPPA did not give approval for the 10 days of open tender.
“We sometimes give approval for a minimum of two weeks,” Sanyang said.
Sanyang further testified that KMC sent another letter to GPPA and this time around, attached documents to support their request for approval, including the minutes of the contracts committee meeting. He testified that GPPA wrote back to KMC, requesting feasibility studies and ordering that after the feasibility studies, a transparent tendering process with adequate safeguards, should be conducted.
Lead Counsel Yakarr Coxx indicated that KMC and the bidder did not indicate the cost of the project as they left it open.
The commission also heard that on 4 February 2020, KMC made a resubmission to GPPA but the authority still maintained that the directions given in their previous letter should be adhered to.
Sanyang said there was no evidence of feasibility studies done by KMC.
“They (KMC) will write to you informing you what they want to do and not necessarily follow the law and/or due process. They will tell you they are going to negotiate directly. Is that not what they have been doing,” the Chairperson of the Commission director Sanyang.
Director Sanyang responded that GPPA sometimes gives conditional approval and once that condition is not approved, then the approval given becomes invalid.
Sanyang, however, told the commission that GPPA gave approval for the project to start but with the condition that KMC should provide certain documents.
“This was a conditional approval and was subject to the conditions stated therein,” Sanyang said.
He testified that after approval by GPPA, it was now time for KMC to start the bidding process as indicated in the documents. KMC, he continued, and then wrote back to GPPA on 12 March 2020, requesting an extension of the bid opening, which was granted. The council, he explained, changed the date of the start of the bid and wanted GPPA to approve the change of date and it was approved.
“As per the request, they were supposed to use an open international tender. There is no evidence to show that they opened the international tender,” Sanyang said.
Lead Counsel Yakarr Coxx asked the witness why the GPPA approved the procurement when there is no evidence to show that the tender was open as indicated in the form, highlighting that there was no evidence.
“There was no proof,” Sanyang said in agreement with Counsel Coxx that it was not appropriate to approve the procurement.
The number of bids received was one and the contract was worth D179,035,967.
The witness said the bid security was supposed to be D3, 580,719.34. However, the bid security provided to KMC by the bidder (Finish Profiles), Sanyang said, was D1, 875,575.90 by Gamstar Insurance as bid security.
“The bid security should be 2% per cent of the total,” Sanyang said.
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