The competition for the tender to guard council property was between Ngwato, Red Guards and Candice security companies. The Finance Committee then awarded the job to the highest bidder Ngwato whose quotation was within the council’s budget of P1.5 million. The committee said Ngwato has a good track record than its competitors. But in a recent meeting with the council officials responsible for tendering, members of the Finance Committee said they got another story. They were told the council has awarded the tender to Red Guards. The members rejected the decision. It is reported that the council officials then wrote a letter to Nasha informing her that the committee has rejected their recommendation in favour of Ngwato whose bid was the highest. “We held a meeting again with the officials who told us that our recommendation had been overturned by the minister. We do not know the content of the letter that was addressed to the minister and the correspondence was never read to us but was only made verbally.”
The Finance Committee members said that procedurally, their chairman Tebogo Matlhogonolo was supposed to be briefed and given a copy of the letter and that he could have been informed that the council was going to write to the minister.
The committee members said they would not accept the rejection of Ngwato. They are not sure whether the council officials have written a letter to the minister because they have not seen such correspondence.
The members have said they learnt during their investigations that Red Guards promised to offer extras like hi-tech closed circuit TV, cameras and watch-dogs free of charge. But they dismiss this as a marketing strategy because the company does not have such equipment.
The committee suspects that somehow some council officials colluded to award the tender to Red Guards. The Finance Committee stated that the irregularities in the award of tenders would implicate some officials in corrupt practises. They said they were shocked by the fact that the company which won the tender had only two days to begin operations.
Committee members said that they are yet to decide a date to meet with Nasha to demand clarification on the tender issue. They said they have all the information of incidences where Red Guards fared badly in other tenders. Efforts to get comments from council officials involved in the tender did not bear fruit.
But the company that won the previous tender, Access Security, has written a letter to SPTC citing irregularities in handing over the job to their successors Red Guards. Access won the SPTC security tender in 2001 and their contract ended last month. They bade for the current tender but failed. But now Access official, Tswelelo Morake has stated that there has been no handing over and he was shocked to discover that his guards were recruited by another company while his contract with SPTC was still valid. He said the process was supposed to involve his company, the council and Red Guards who have won the tender. He said Red Guards should be suspended as the tender award is investigated.
Deputy mayor, Amogelang Mojuta confirmed that Access Security has lodged a complaint with them and the matter is being discussed to chart the way forward. But acting Town Clerk Maipelo Selatolo said he is not aware of the complaint.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of Red Guards, Motsisi Pule said he does not know of any irregularities in the tender that his company won. He stressed that his is the best security company in the country with global standards. He said he has all the equipment stated in the tender document and that he is in the process of installing cameras in the council building for free. “If there was no corruption in awarding tenders, I could have won all the tenders in the country,” he said.
