Apex wants leave to appeal the order of November 29, 2024 where More Property Valuers (Pty) Ltd (More) was awarded part of the P32 million valuation package for the City. Apex has also applied for stay of execution of the court order. The dispute follows an award of a tender for a service contract for general valuation of rateable properties, maintenance and production of valuation roll in the City of Francistown from October 5, 2022 to November 2, 2022. The tender was divided into two packages which were initially won by Apex at amounts of P14.6 million for Package A and P17.2 million for Package B, on May 24 last year. Another bidder, More, subsequently lodged a complaint before the FCC’s Accounting Officer challenging both packages. The local authority subsequently revoked its initial award and entered into negotiations with MPV, who revised their bid down for Package A. By August, the FCC awarded Package A to More at an amount of P17.2 million. Apex subsequently dragged the council and MPV before the Procurement Tribunal.
In its hard-hitting ruling, a four-member panel of the Tribunal did not mince its words in slamming the FCC’s actions in the tender. The tribunal said allowing MPV to change its original bid price in order to be awarded Package A, was “grossly irregular, bordering on incompetency” on the part of the FCC. “The result of the so-called negotiations resulted in More Property Valuers slashing its bid price by over P29 million, an action clearly forbidden by the law,” Tribunal Judge President Kabelo Lebotse said. The tribunal was particularly unimpressed that the FCC had gone back to negotiate with an aggrieved bidder, after the award of the original tender, to reduce the prices involved in the tender. The move, Justice Lebotse said, was forbidden by both the Local Authorities Procurement and Asset Disposal Act (LAPAD) regulations as well as the Public Procurement Act regulations. “Both the LAPAD regulations and the Public Procurement regulations proscribe negotiations aimed at or that result in a change of the price in competitive (open) tenders. “Amendments are only allowed if they are aimed at correcting arithmetical errors and to correct minor errors, but such amendment should not change the substance of the bid. “The bid price forms the core substance of the bid.”
