Africa-Press – South-Africa. The controversial R23 million tender for the Lesseyton sports field in the Eastern Cape has been referred to the Hawks for criminal investigation.
On Wednesday, Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka held a media briefing to release findings of her investigations into the building of the stadium in Komani.
The report found several procurement irregularities and that the appointed contractor failed to deliver, despite going over the budget by almost R5 million.
Contractor Thalami Civils Pty Ltd failed to deliver on an athletics track, a soccer and rugby field, netball, tennis and volleyball courts and grandstands as outlined in the bid specification.
Public Protector spokesperson, Khulu Phasiwe, said the Enoch Mgijimi Municipality did not properly advertise the tender.
“The advertisement has to be placed in three different publicly accessible platforms. The municipality only did so in two different platforms. Even the tender advertisement itself, the period was initially 30 days, but the municipality shortened it to 14 days without informing the participants.”
Phathiswe added that Thalami Civils didn’t qualify for the tender as it scored the fourth-highest points among the bidders.
“The company that was meant to have won this was somehow rejected and when the investigations were done and the municipality explained why they did so is because that company had already gotten another tender elsewhere and therefore they wanted to give other players a chance.”
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