The Eastern Cape education department is keeping mum about an alleged blunder in a R170m tender to print examination papers that has led to the matter ending up in court.
The contract, in which the successful bidder, Harry’s Printers from East London, was appointed to print, store and package examination papers from grade 1 to grade 12 for the next three years, was awarded last month. This came after two extensions by the department — delaying the award by 240 days — on the announcement of a winning bidder.
Court papers filed in the high court in Makhanda by one of the losing bidders — a joint venture between Ndabase Printing Solutions (NPS), Process Litho and HR Lithographic Printers — allege the department contravened its own requirements by not conducting inspections in loco to evaluate the contract.
“Evidence shows that the contract was manifestly unlawful and the tender was unlawfully awarded to Harry’s Printers. The department awarded the tender without complying with the mandatory requirements of the tender,” NPS CEO Thandazani Nyide said.
The applicants are asking the court to declare the contract entered into between the department and Harry's Printers unlawful, and want the decision to award it sent back to the department for re-evaluation.
Nyide said grounds for the unlawfulness of the tender were that the department refused to give reasons for the award to Harry’s Printers. Also, that the department had failed to inspect their premises — a mandatory requirement during the first phase of evaluation within the tender — meaning it was possible the department did not inspect premises of the other bidders as well, or that it prejudiced the joint venture by not inspecting only their premises.
“If it is the first option, then the decision is reviewable on the grounds that the mandatory requirements in the tender specifications were not complied with ... If it is the second option, then the decision is reviewable on the grounds that the mandatory requirements were not complied with ... and the procedure was unfair, ” Nyide said.
In response to questions from the Sunday Times this week, both Priya Harry of Harry’s Printers and the education department refused to comment.
Another anomaly is that according to Companies and Intellectual Property Commission records, the directors of Harry’s Printers — Vrajlal and Karuna Harry — are deceased, and there are no living directors listed.
The previous iteration of the contract, which was awarded to Harry’s Printers in 2019, was also controversial. The Daily Dispatch newspaper reported that the department awarded the tender after calling on private companies to make submissions to print within its R100m in-house printing facility, but then awarded it to Harry’s Printers to print elsewhere.
A source at the time said the department did not put out details about the “piggyback” contract because it had already awarded it to Harry’s Printers, which had an existing contract with the department.
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