The Court of Appeal yesterday set aside the decision of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) to refuse to award a multi-million Pula tender to Zac Construction Company.
It ruled that the tender bid for the construction of a P390 million infrastructure development for the Ministry of Lands in Metsimotlhabe Block 4 should be remitted to the PPADB for reconsideration. The tender included 52 kilometres of roads and storm water reticulation, sewer reticulation and telecommunications civil works.
As a result of the judgement, Zac Construction will be required to resend the tender documents to the PPADB for fresh adjudication, which will decide whether the company complies with all the requirements of the Invitation To Tender (ITT).
The PPADB moved to the Court of Appeal after the High Court nullified its decision to deny Zac Construction the tender.
With the latest judgement, it is believed that the board will be able to revisit the tender documents and make another fresh decision of whether Zac should be awarded the tender or not.
Kgotso Botlhole, one of the lawyers representing PPADB told BusinessWeek that the Court of Appeal made the right decision to set aside the tender award and sending it back to the board for reconsideration. “It is a fair decision by the court of appeal since it realised that the matter is complicated and needs the adjudication of experts thus it decided to remit it to the board,” he said.
According to court records, the PPADB had defied a recommendation by the ministry to give the job to the company on the grounds that none of the bidders had met all the requirements of the ITT.
In October last year, the High Court ordered that the tender be awarded to Zac. The court stated that it was improper for the PPADB to cancel the award after engineers from the ministry in conjunction with consulting engineers, had collectively considered Zac to be compliant in all respects. After the ruling, PPADB moved to the Court of Appeal arguing that Zac’s application for judicial review at the High Court was premature. The PPADB legal team was led by advocate Geoff Budlender, while advocate John Peter represented Zac Constructions before three Court of Appeal judges: Justice Lord Arthur Hamilton, Justice Monametsi Gaongalelwe and Justice Lord Cameron Abernathy.