Fire tender legal – ZPPA

Fri, 06 Oct 2017 13:08:24 +0000

By OSCAR MALIPENGA

ZAMBIA Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) says Government followed procedure in the procurement of the 42 fire engines.

“The fire tender deal was very competitive there were 16 firms which applied but only one firm met the required standards and specifications needed,” ZPPA director-general Danies Chisenda said.

Explaining ZPPA’s role, Mr Chisenda said the Ministry of Local Government followed the ZPPA procedure when it bought the 42 fire engines at US$42 million.

Mr Chisenda also explained that the ministry applied to be allowed to single source but ZPPA rejected the application.

He said ZPPA encouraged the Ministry of Local Government to open the tender to many bidders and this was done.

Mr Chisenda said as part of the process, ZPPA did receive complaints from losing bidders but they were handled legally by a committee appointed by the authority.

He said some complaints were thrown out because they lacked merit and some which were not satisfied sought arbitration.

Mr Chisenda said bidders are always allowed to seek explanation from ZPPA regarding why their bids were not successful.

He encouraged those who were complaining of the deal being corrupt to read and research to find out the truth.

Mr Chisenda was responding to a directive from Finance Minister Felix Mutati yesterday for the ZPPA to explain its role in the procurement of the 42 fire trucks at US$42 million so that the public is kept at ease.

Mr Mutati said the public needed to know what role ZPPA played in the matter (fire tender).

Mr Mutati said the public also needed to find out why ZPPA was in the process of repealing and having a new Procurement Act.

“I think it will be important to answer those questions so that the public is kept at ease,” Mr Mutati said.

He reiterated that the President would therefore not pay attention to such baseless allegations.  Mr Chanda said those making unjustified allegations against the President or his Minsters and expecting him to respond to them, were just wasting their time. He said the Head of State would only pay attention to allegations were there was credible evidence. “That silly scheme has been unearthed, so on our part we shall continue to ignore such people, some of them are stationed in South Africa, another group is stationed in Asia, another one in Europe.

“The idea is to make these allegations on a daily basis and the minimum number is that there’s three corruption allegations against anyone in government.  Mr Chanda said it was ridiculous to accuse Government officials of corruption for acquiring wealth when they have worked hard and rightly earned it.

“One can’t just wake up and accuse a Government official  who has over 25 years  gone to university and acquired those degrees and say that person has acquired wealth, what else do you want them to acquire? Poverty and Ignorance? No they worked hard for it,” he said.