Multibillion-rand tenders for the provision of set-top boxes, satellite dishes and antennas for digital broadcast migration have attracted bids from only 17 companies, says the Universal Service and Access Agency of SA (USAASA).
The agency issued four requests for proposals in November last year, for the manufacture and supply of some five million decoders - with and without encryption - as well as for the provision of satellite dishes and antennas.
A compulsory bid briefing, held on 2 December, attracted interest from 145 companies, which had until 6 January to submit expressions of interests. The number of bids represents just more than 10% of those that were initially keen.
USAASA spokesperson Khulekani Ntshangase says an external auditing firm - appointed by the agency to oversee the tender process - will this week begin the technical evaluation of the 17 received bids.
"After the technical evaluation, the external auditing firm will carry out site inspections to ensure [qualifying] bidders have factories and manufacturing capacity," says Ntshangase. Once this process is finalised, the external auditors will recommend a shortlist of bidders to USAASA's adjudication committee and contracts will then be awarded to successful bidders.
Ntshangase says there are no prescriptions in terms of manufacturing capacity and tenders may well be divided up among various bidders.
"The intention is to announce successful bidders at the end of February or beginning of March," he says, explaining that the Public Finance Management Act sets specific timelines for the awarding of government tenders - within 90 days of their announcement. "Whether this happens slightly sooner or later will mainly depend on the duration of the technical evaluation and site inspections that have to be conducted."
The issuing of these tenders is seen as the first tangible step in the country's ailing broadcast migration project, but even this process has been shrouded in controversy. The Democratic Alliance (DA) said earlier this month it is planning to obtain legal advice on the validity of the tenders, as it is worried USAASA has already flouted various aspects of the tender process.
'Rushed attempt'
DA shadow minister of telecommunications and postal services Marian Shinn says the DA is concerned that, in a rushed attempt to partially meet the digital migration deadline of 17 June by delivering some set-top boxes this year, proper processes and evaluation may be "circumvented and sidelined, rendering the tender process unlawful".
Shinn alleges the low-key manner in which the process was so far conducted - specifically in reference to the bid briefing at the end of last year - has sidelined many companies that would have submitted bids, and casts doubt over whether the process will be fairly adjudicated.
"Most of the 145 companies that attended the bidders' briefing meeting on 2 December 2014 were invited," she says, adding that of those that attended the bid briefing at the end of last year, only 10 submitted bids for the previous, lapsed tender, in September 2012.
"This would indicate that most of those who invested in the previous bid were deliberately kept in the dark. A tender of this size should have been widely publicised. USAASA didn't even put out a press release alerting interested industry players to the fact that the bid process was starting."
However, Ntshangase has hit back at the allegations, rejecting any suggestion of impropriety in terms of the timing of the announcement of the tenders, or the manner in which the process has been conducted so far.
"We did not phone anyone to attend the briefing. All the companies that attended the briefing did so as a result of the tender having been gazetted and subsequently advertised in the Sunday Times."
He also rejects Shinn's claims about the briefing and tender coinciding with the holiday season as an attempt to sideline companies that were not specifically earmarked to participate in the process.
"Government does not close. If there are companies that closed for the holidays at that stage, then it is their problem. We have had people contacting us to extend the closing date of the tender, which we did from 19 December to 6 January. But really, it is their problem if they were not ready in December."
Share