GOVT BUYS FIVE E1.3M CARS

MBABANE – Government has procured five cars costing tax payers a hefty E6.5 million.

The cars are the latest Land Cruiser 200, which cost about E1.3 million each. They were expected to be delivered to the Central Transport Organisation (CTO) by last Thursday.
The Times SUNDAY has established that at least two other similar cars are owned by ordinary citizens.

The cars are not just stocked by the dealer that sells them but come only by order from customers.
However, it could not be ascertained whether government followed proper tendering procedures when purchasing the vehicles. The Public Procurement Procedures, 2016 states in Section 18 (1) that stages of the procurement process shall require the prior authorization of the relevant approvals authority.

It goes on to list the stages as, “(a) invitation documents, advertisements and shortlists prior to their issue; (b) evaluation reports prior to any further tender opening or notification of award; and (c) contract amendments or terminations prior to their issue.”
The legislation further states that the SPPRA website will be the official page for posting tenders.

After surfing through the website, there was no recent tender for the procurement of government vehicles.
There was also no advertisement of the same tender in local newspapers or posted in the same SPPRA website. Worth noting is that there were also other tenders that were not posted on the website.
Bongani Motsa, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Swaziland Public Procurement Regulatory Agency, was sent a text message which he acknowledged receiving. Motsa was asked if he was aware if any tendering for the purchase of the cars was done.

In a texted response Motsa said, “Thank you for your enquiry. I will get back to you.”
Later on, Motsa was called numerous times but he did not answer his mobile phone.

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