JOHANNESBURG - The current tender process is far too open to manipulation.
That's the view of Civil Engineering professional Norman Milne.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is probing the legality of a R150 million North West road works tender.
The SIU has also been authorised to look into the Theewaterskloof Local Municipality for improper use of public funds.
"You often find that the person who was the lowest bidder has made an error in his tender at some place or another, and that at the end of the day that error could be quite significant.
“Overseas, in other jurisdictions, they actually disregard the lowest and the highest tenderers. They take those two prices out, they add up the balance of the tenderers, and whoever is closer to that median price is the one that gets awarded the tender.
“Unfortunately, open tenders are open to manipulation. People will manipulate figures, people will manipulate documents, and those sorts of things in order to win the tender.
“Cheapest price: this is the cheapest price we've got on the table, but that could be so detrimental to the project in the long run. Once you've had to terminate a contract because a contract is not performing, then you have to go through the whole tender process over again, and you'll discover that paying for the balance of the work is going to cost you a lot more than you thought it would originally."