P24 million tender lands BPC in court
News
A local company, Drift In Investments (Pty) Ltd has dragged Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) before Justice Modiri Letsididi at Lobatse High Court. Through an urgent application, the company wants the state-owned power utility to show cause why certain orders should not be made final.
The Drift In Investments wants BPC to be ordered, interdicted and restrained from proceeding any further, with the award of tender no 4142/20 for various meters pending; the finalisation of the Applicants application for review of the respondents (BPC) decision to annul the tender and the finalisation of the Applicants application for review which awaits hearing.
In February this year, Drift In Investments submitted a bid to be awarded supply and delivery of single (1) phase and three (3) phase integrated GPS based STS prepayment smart meters with open standard communication protocols that was advertised as tender number 3890/19.
The tender in question was an open tender, which means all interested bidders could bid for it, including Drift In Investments.
The bid was duly evaluated and adjudicated by BPCs procurement committee, the Executive Procurement and Tender Committee. Such evaluation and adjudication were preceded by the recommendations of the best evaluated bidder, who will proceed to sign a contract to offer such services. According to Drift In Investments founding affidavit attached hereto is a copy of the evaluation and adjudication report which placed the Applicant as the best bidder, hence the legitimate expectation, that mutatis muntandis, that it would sign the contract.
Drift In Investments was the best bidder and was approved to be awarded to the tender at BWP 14 442 660, to supply and deliver a single phase split smart meters. Furthermore, Drift In Investments was awarded for the supply and delivery of Customer Interface Units (CIUs) for an amount of P10 343 070.00. When these recommendations and approvals were to be effected, in a rather strange turn of events, the respondent somersaulted and nullified the tender. On minutes from the EXCO Procurement and Tender Committee, a request was made to the aforesaid committee to nullify the tender and bring it back as a selected tender, court papers indicate.
The reasons stated were that the tender was cancelled because the Corporation has taken a position to directly work with the reputable manufactures/ suppliers of smart meters that have the necessary expertise required in the implementation of a SMART GRID SOLUTION that the Corporation is embarking upon. The nullification was granted, and time was not wasted in listing the bidders for selective tendering. One of the listed bidders for manufactures/ suppliers of the split smart meters is Landis & Gyr which had been listed as the supplier to the Drift In Investments in the nullified tender.
BPC had commended the bid by Drift In because it had the above stated company (Landis & Gyr). Drift In split smart meters sourced from Landis & Gyr have been supplied to BPC before and the performance is good. Besides the split smart meters, Landis & Gyr has got a good performance record also on the Maximum Demand (MD) meters and ordinary non smart meter BEC previously supplied to BPC for quite a number of years.
According to the founding affidavit it came as a surprise then on the 22nd May 2020 when Drift In Investments was given a letter dated 18th May 2020 which corroborated the aforestated minutes that the said tenders were nullified. The letter reads, Please be advised that at its sitting of the 11th May 2020, the EXCO Procurement and Tender Committee approved the recommendation to nullify the above tender. We wish to take this opportunity to thank you for showing interest in doing business with the Corporation and assure you of our cooperation at all times.
The founding affidavit contend that there were no basis whatsoever for cancelation of the tender which was floated publicly to a select tender when all the requirements had been met, only to turn around and chuck the bidders. According the founding affidavit the cancellation was unlawful on the reason that; the procurement in BPC is done through a three tier system. It passes through evaluation, and the evaluation committee makes recommendations to the adjudication system, ultimately reaching the board for certain tenders.
Again there are various boards dealing with various tenders varying in the amounts. Each level of evaluation has a limit to the tender it can evaluate based on the value of the tender. The present tender that the applicant is querying or had made a bid for, amounted to more than 10 million Pula. From its own admission, and the papers filed of record, the evaluation was carried out by the Executive Procurement and Tender Committee.
Drift In Investments also argues that in terms of the regulations of the Respondent of Procurement, the threshold for the Executive Procurement and Committee (EPTC) are amounts between P500 000.00 to P3.5 million. The tender having been in excess of 10 million, the EPTC clearly stepped out of its mandate. It was not competent to deal with tender by adjudicating the same, therefore acting ultra vires their mandate/ authority. Such a decision is liable to be reviewed and set aside as it is unlawful, irrational and illegal.
I reiterate my averments further that save via this present Urgent Application, there is no facility under our law to obtain a stay execution of the Tender herein whilst the Application asserts its challenge against the adjudication of the same. While appearing before Justice Modiri Letsididi on few weeks ago, attorneys representing BPC from Armstrongs Attorneys said they were only served with court papers in the morning therefore pleaded with the court to be given some time to prepare and file their opposing affidavit.
Both lawyers met briefly and agree that it was short notice and that the court set a new date where the urgent matter and the review application will be heard. Justice Modiri Letsididi advised that the new rule states that all matters dealing with tenders by nature are urgent because they are dealing with a lot of money that affects the economy.
Earlier on, BPC attorneys had urged that the tender in question is a different tender from the initial one something that was denied by the defence lawyers. The matter has been ordered a status quo while the new dates were set for 6th November 2020 while the court will hear both the urgent matter and the review application.
News
ENVIRONMENT ISSUES: Masisi asks Virginia for help
President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the issue of sustainable natural resources management has always been an important part of Botswana’s national development agenda.
Masisi was speaking this week on the occasion of a public lecture at Virginia Polytechnic, under theme, “Merging Conservation, Democracy and Sustainable Development in Botswana.”
Botswana, according to Masisi, holds the view that the environment is fragile and as such, must be managed and given the utmost protection to enable the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“It is necessary that we engage one another in the interchange of ideas, perspectives, visualizations of social futures, and considerations of possible strategies and courses of action for sustainable development,” said Masisi.
On the other hand, dialogue, in the form of rigorous democratic discourse among stakeholders presents another basis for reconfiguring how people act on their environments, with a view to conserving its resources that “we require to meet our socio-economic development needs on a sustainable basis,” Masisi told attendees at the public lecture.
He said government has a keen interest in understanding the epidemiology and ecology of diseases of both domestic and wild animals. “It is our national interest to forestall the dire consequences of animal diseases on our communities livelihoods.”
President Masisi hoped that both Botswana and Virginia could help each other in curbing contagious diseases of wildlife.
“We believe that Virginia Tech can reasonably share their experiences, research insights and advances in veterinary sciences and medicines, to help us build capacity for knowledge creation and improve efforts of managing and containing contagious diseases of wildlife. The ground is fertile for entering into such a mutually beneficial partnership.”
When explaining environmental issues further, Masisi said efforts of conservation and sustainable development might at times be hampered by the emergence and recurrence of diseases when pathogens mutate and take host of more than one species.
“Water pollution also kills aquatic life, such as fish, which is one of humanity’s much deserved sources of food. In this regard, One Health Approach imposes ecological responsibility upon all of us to care for the environment and the bio-diversity therein.”
He said the production and use of animal vaccines is an important space and tool for conservation, particularly to deal with trans-border animal diseases.
“In Botswana, our 43-year-old national premier pharmaceutical institution called Botswana Vaccine Institute has played its role well. Through its successful production of highly efficacious Foot and Mouth vaccines, the country is able to contain this disease as well as supply vaccines to other countries in the sub-region.:
He has however declared that there is need for more help, saying “We need more capacitation to deal with and contain other types of microbial that affect both animals and human health.”
News
Masisi saddened by deaths of elephant attacks
President Mokgweetsi Masisi has expressed a strong worry over elephants killing people in Botswana. When speaking in Virginia this week, Masisi said it is unfortunate that Batswana have paid a price with their own blood through being attacked by elephants.
“Communities also suffer unimaginable economic losses yearly when their crops are eaten by the elephants. In spite of such incidents of human-elephant conflict, our people embrace living together with the animals. They fully understand wildlife conservation and its economic benefits in tourism.”
In 2018, Nthobogang Samokwase’s father was attacked by an elephant when travelling from the fields, where he stayed during the cropping season.
It was reported that the man couldn’t run because of his age. He was found trampled by the elephant and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
In the same year, in Maun, a 57-year-old British woman was attacked by an elephant at Boro and died upon arrival at the hospital. The woman was with her Motswana partner, and were walking dogs in the evening.
Last month, a Durban woman named Carly Marshall survived an elephant attack while on holiday in the bush in Botswana. She was stabbed by one of the elephant’s tucks through the chest and was left with bruises. Marshall also suffered several fractured ribs from the ordeal.
President Masisi Botswana has the largest population of African elephants in the world, totaling more than 130 000. “This has been possible due to progressive conservation policies, partnerships with the communities, and investment in wildlife management programmes.”
In order to benefit further from wildlife, Masisi indicated that government has re-introduced controlled hunting in 2019 after a four-year pause. “The re-introduction of hunting was done in an open, transparent and democratic way, giving the communities an opportunity to air their views. The funds from the sale of hunting quota goes towards community development and elephant conservation.”
He stressed that for conservation to succeed, the local people must be involved and derive benefits from the natural resources within their localities.
“There must be open and transparent consultations which involve all sectors of the society. It is against this backdrop that as a country, we lead the continent on merging conservation, democracy and sustainable development.”
Masisi stated that Botswana is open to collaborative opportunities, “particularly with identifiable partners such as Virginia Tech, in other essential areas such as conservation, and the study of the interplay among the ecology of diseases of wild animals and plants, and their effects on human health and socio-economic development.”
featured
Gov’t commit to injecting more funds in fighting HIV
Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng says government will continue to make resources available in terms of financial allocations and human capital to ensure that Botswana achieves the ideal of eradicating HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Morwaeng was speaking this morning in Gaborone at the High-Level Advocacy event to accelerate HIV Prevention in Botswana. He said the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA), in partnership with UNAIDS, UN agencies, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, have started a process of developing transition readiness plan for sustainability of HIV prevention and treatment programmes.
“It is important for us, as a country that has had a fair share of donor support in the response to an epidemic such as HIV and AIDS, to look beyond the period when the level of assistance would have reduced, or ceased, thus calling for domestic financing for all areas which were on donor support.”
Morwaeng said this is important as the such a plan will guarantee that all the gains accrued from the response with donor support will be sustained until the end when “we reach the elimination of HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 20230,” he said.
“I commit to continue support efforts towards strengthened HIV prevention, accentuating HIV primary prevention and treatment as prevention towards Zero New Infections, Zero Stigma, Discrimination and Zero AIDS related death, to end AIDS in Botswana.”
He reiterated that government commits to tackle legislative, policy and programming challenges that act as barriers to the achievement of the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.
In the financial year 2022/2023, a total of 119 Civil Society Organizations, including Faith Based Organizations, were contracted with an amount of P100 million to implement HIV and NCDs prevention activities throughout the country, and the money was drawn from the Consolidated Fund.
Through an upcoming HIV Prevention Symposium, technical stakeholders will use outcomes to develop the Botswana HIV Prevention Acceleration Road Map for 2023-2025.
Morwaeng stated that government will support and ensure that Botswana plays its part achieving the road map. He said there is need to put hands on the deck to ensure that Botswana sustains progress made so far in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
“There are tremendous achievements thus far to, reach and surpass the UNAIDS fast track targets of 95%- 95%- 95% by the year 2025. As reflected by the BAIS preliminary results of 2021, we now stand at 95- 98- 98 against the set targets.”
“These achievements challenge us to now shift our gears and strive to know who are the remaining 5% for those aware of their HIV status, 2% of enrolment on treatment by those aware of their status and 2% of viral suppression by those on treatment.”
Explaining this further, Morwaeng said shift in gears should extend to coming up with robust strategies of determining where these remaining people are as well as how they will be reached with the necessary services.
“These are just some of the many variables that are required to ensure that as a country, we are well positioned to reaching the last mile of our country’s response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.”