THE eThekwini Municipality has blacklisted eight more companies that were doing business with it, bring the total number of companies banned from doing work for the City to 32.
City manager Musa Mbhele said the companies were blacklisted for their alleged involvement in fraud and corruption, poor performance, and collusive tendering. He said some of them were found to have directors employed by the state.
The 32 companies have been barred from bidding for the city’s tenders for five years. The companies had been listed on the municipality’s website.
“The municipality follows a very rigorous process to blacklist a service provider as per policy and the decision is not taken lightly.
The application for blacklisting is initiated by the relevant line department and emanates from findings of the line department, the City Integrity and Investigations Unit, or the Auditor-General of South Africa following investigations which found improper business conduct,” said Mbhele.
Mbhele said that once suspicious activities were identified, the suspected companies would be notified by the blacklisting committee of the intention to blacklist them and give them 20 days to defend themselves.
“This takes the form of a court application process, and where necessary, oral evidence is heard from the parties concerned.
“The Blacklisting Committee objectively applies its mind to the legalities of the matter and decides on the outcome within five days, whereafter an order is sent to all affected parties.
“The process is objective and strictly follows the Supply Chain Management Policy,” Mbhele said.
The City would also approach the National Treasury to strike the affected companies off the central database, which would prevent them from “getting work from another municipality or government department”.
Mbhele said this is a warning to all service providers contracted by the municipality to ensure they are complying with contract, policy, and law.
“More importantly, they must ensure that their performance meets the expected standards.
“Sub-standard work will not be tolerated.
“A zero-tolerance approach has been adopted by the Municipality in implementing the Blacklisting Policy to freeze out dodgy suppliers and ensure that ratepayers receive expedited and effective service delivery,” said Mbhele.