Emergency Procurement

A Procuring Entity (PE) sought guidance as follows:

1. The PE sited the need for emergency procurement proceedings on the basis of there being a need to upgrade the electrical infrastructure for a regional health centre, which experiences severe electrical load issues that leads to frequent incidents of low voltage;

2. Hence, an engineer was contracted to scope and price the project. An estimate of over J$500 million was developed, and a detailed scope of work and priced bill of quantity (BQ) provided;

3. The engineer also made a recommendation in favour of three contractors that were thought to possess the capacity to respond quickly to the needs of PE; 

4. The PE later determined that only one of the recommended contractors was suitable, and initiated procurement proceedings for large works were initiated utilising the single-source procurement method;

5. A submission was made to the Works Sector Committee who did not support the award of contract on the basis of the procurement method utilised, and in addition to the fact that the value for money objective was not established;
6. The submission was later withdrawn by the PE, the process cancelled, and the restricted bidding procurement method deployed where the bidder (Bidder A) from the previous single-source procurement process, in addition to other contractors randomly selected from the PPC register were invited to participate;
7. One week was given for the submission of bids. The PE was of the opinion that this would be sufficient time given that Bidder A was able to submit their quote in less than week in the previous procurement process.
8. At the close of the deadline for submission, one bid was received from Bidder A, however, the other contractors had requested extensions of up to 40 days, which the PE did not agree to stating that “it would defeat the purpose of an ‘emergency procurement’ to offer an extension, especially one for 40 days”;
9. Subsequently, a submission was made to the PPC, who gave a notice of non-approval citing the following reason: “The procuring entity has not adhered to prescribed procedural requirements”.