MBABANE – The Royal Eswatini National Airways Corporation (RENAC) has assured stakeholders and business partners that its procurement processes remain sound, transparent and protected from corruption.
The public assurance follows a leaked email exchange in which some RENAC officials were accused of irregularly awarding a E2 million tender to a South African company for the acquisition of a Human Resources and Payroll Management System.
According to official procurement records and corroborating correspondence, an intention to award contract was issued in favour of CCG Systems in the amount of E2 041 701.62, despite the existence of a substantially lower bid of E315 467.47 submitted by a local company.
The resulting price differential of E1.7 million has raised concerns about the financial prudence of the procurement process.
There was also a concern that CCG Systems’ original itemised proposal, when mathematically recalculated, amounts to E935 367.21.
The gap between this figure and the formal award seemingly gave the impression that the figures might have been inflated and raised questions about the procedures outlined by both the Public Procurement Act and the Public Finance Management Act.
There was also a concern that the system being procured under the contract is one that RENAC already owns and uses, rendering the procurement questionable.
In a written objection submitted to the CEO of RENAC, President Qiniso Dhlamini, the local company queried: “This is the same solution you currently have and have had since 2020, which we provided you with. As the solution being awarded is already the solution you have, we question why you would be purchasing it and implementing it a second time?”
In yet another formal communication, the local supplier requested RENAC to provide a detailed cost breakdown justifying the allegedly inflated award value.
However, RENAC management advised the company on the importance of adhering to confidentiality policies as grounds for non-disclosure.
The leaked documents reveal that the local company formally appealed to the RENAC Board of Directors, questioning the procurement decision and raising red flags about alleged duplication of expenditure.
Following the contestation against the tender, RENAC management through the CEO duly responded to the concerned supplier.
Dhlamini acknowledged receipt of the letter sent by the concerned company, in which it requested a review of the intention to award the tender.
The CEO said upon reviewing the letter, they were unable to ascertain in specific, the grounds for the supplier’s dissatisfaction.
Dhlamini then requested that the supplier should clearly outline the areas of dissatisfaction to facilitate an effective review of the request.
Indeed, the supplier wrote to the RENAC Board and explained the reasons why it wanted a review of the intent to award the tender.
The supplier stated that the solution provided by the intended awardee was PaySpace Payroll and HR Software Solution.
“This is the same solution you currently have and have had since 2020 which we provided you with. To this day, we have no correspondence referring to any lack of service delivery or dissatisfaction with our services to RENAC,” reads part of the letter written by the supplier.
It raised that as the solution being awarded was already the one that the parastatal had, such raised the question why it was being implemented for the second time.
The supplier argued that had there been any dissatisfaction with its services and had it not been able to rectify it, then a tender for the service should have been released not the provision of a system that the parastatal had already spent money on.
Another argument put up by the supplier was that the value being awarded was E2 041 701.62 yet its proposal was E315 467.47, which would be the few modules that the parastatal did not have and implementation therefore with additional consultation for required configuration.
Also pointed out by the concerned supplier was that the difference in the new tender and what would be a repeat spend amounted to E1 726 234, which was about 650 per cent.
The supplier said it analysed the parastatal’s spend with it over the past five years and that the very software over a five-year period cost E427 494 in total.
Unpacking the breakdown further, the supplier said the implementation over the various modules cost E355 548 while the cost for training stood at E35 310 for all the modules.
The overall total, therefore, according to the supplier, stood at E718 354 for a five-year period with support costing about E367 873.
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ESPPRA informed, tender process to be started afresh
MBABANE – Having investigated and discovered that the procurement process was not properly followed in the intention to award a tender for the acquisition of a Human Resources and Payroll Management System, RENAC has said that the process will be started afresh.
This information was shared by the Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Eswatini National Airways Corporation (RENAC), Captain Qiniso Dhlamini.
Interviewed by this publication, Dhlamini said while the parastatal had not been wasteful in any way in as far as the tender was concerned, they discovered that certain procurement processes were not followed.
He said in the spirit of transparency and accountability, they stopped the process when the red flags were discovered and conducted an investigation.
The CEO said they have since informed the Eswatini Public Procurement Regulatory Agency (ESPPRA) and that a new tender would be issued.
Senior officer resigns amid calls for DC
MBABANE – Following an investigation into the procurement tender for the acquisition of a Human Resources and Payroll Management System for RENAC, one of the senior managers who was called to account has since resigned.
This was confirmed by the Royal Eswatini National Airways Corporation (RENAC) in an interview with this publication.
The senior officer was reportedly asked to show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken for procedural breaches emanating from this particular assignment and others. It was gathered that he subsequently resigned, and recruitment for his successor is underway. The corporation has pledged to conduct strict vetting during the hiring process.
However, Chief Executive Officer Captain Qiniso Dhlamini declined to comment on the matter, citing employer-employee confidentiality.
*Full article available in our publication.
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