The Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan says it's tender to award a R30 million deal to Vodacom rival MTN was above board, although the contract has been contested.
The metropolitan's communication's director Roland Williams says the tender process was strictly adhered to.
Last week, Motse Mfuleni, CEO of Imbicon IT and Mobile Telecoms, said MTN was wrongfully awarded a R30 million tender to provide voice and data services to the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan.
He says MTN did not meet the empowerment and local partner criteria.
Williams says all requirements were met. This included advertising the tender in newspapers on 1 July 2009, as well as a compulsory briefing session on 8 July 2009.
He says the tender closed on 6 August 2009 and each bidder presented their tenders to a technical panel on 8 September 2009.
In addition, scoring by the panel was done according to the criteria that had been specified in the tender and MTN finished with the highest points, which included functionality and price.
The panel recommended MTN's bid, which was agreed to by the municipal manager, says Williams.
Vodacom has not said much about the deal, apart from: “We are considering our options and cannot make additional comment at this stage.”
MTN has yet to respond to requests for comment.
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