PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - What appears to be an electricity tender bungle, could result in Bitou municipal coffers leaking more than R6-million.
According to several documents concerning the municipality’s electricity meter upgrade plans, Bitou Municipality called for tenders for a new prepaid electricity vendor, but it turns out that the winning service provider could not vend all the meters in Bitou and now more than R6-milllion is needed to replace the affected meters.
While the municipality confirmed that there are issues around the new service provider, it is adamant that nothing sinister is brewing.
According to statistics there are more than 8 000 prepaid electricity meters in houses throughout Bitou. There are plans and a R3.1-milion budget for the upgrading of these metres during the current financial year. The idea is to standardise all the meters as there are about five different types in use.
New tender effective on 1 July
Until 30 June 2018 all these meters were serviced by Syntell. This contract came to an end and early this year and a new tender was advertised. Several service providers responded, including Syntell, but the tender was awarded to Utility World and became effective on 1 July 2018.
Over the weekend of 1 July, however, it was discovered that a large number of residents could not load purchased power units into their meters, leaving them without power for an extended period. The reason for this was that the new service provider could not service these specific meters.
Following a meeting with several municipal departments the following week, it was discovered that more than 700 meters were affected and instruction was given to replace these meters. It is believed the original budget of R3.1-million for the replacement of all Bitou’s metres had to be used to replace the affected ones. During the meeting it was also discovered that a further R3-million would be needed to deal with the situation.
It is believed a further R13-million would be needed to systematically standardise all Bitou’s meters.
'No signs of fraud, corruption'
Bitou spokesperson James Sijama said while the municipality acknowledges that they operate in “an environment where corruption and maladministration was rife”, the municipality has not identified any elements of fraud or corruption relating to the awarding of this tender.
He added that this conclusion was reached after consulting the relevant internal role players and also studying the relevant tender documents and bids submitted.
“The tender was awarded based on the submission made by the bidders and the successful bidders met all the standard requirement as stipulated in the bid. During the implementation it was discovered that the electrical department did not replace all the old meters as planned and as a result some of the meters will not be able to vend. The municipal manager (Thabo Ndlovu) engaged the service provider in this regard and they made sure that all the consumers are able to vend without any additional charges from the municipality,” Sijama said.
He added the process for the changing of meters was “extremely critical” and the municipality had been engaged in this process since 2014.
“The expectation was the electrical team will have completed the replacement of these meters by June 2017. The municipality will continue with the replacement as planned and we hope that with the new team in the engineering section this will improve our operations in this regard.”
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