Metro Security Services will be returning to the Port Elizabeth High Court today, 27 October 2011, as the next chapter of the ongoing case surrounding the municipal security contract that was awarded and subsequently withdrawn in January last year.
Although the municipality notified Metro Security Services that they were the successful bidder – based on the outcome of the municipality’s bid evaluation committee that placed them as the best of 11 tendering companies – and had been awarded the three year contract valued in excess of R90-million in a letter given to them on the 5th of January 2011, the municipality later withdrew the decision, citing that the then acting Municipal Manager, Elias Ntoba, had not yet signed off on the tender.
Following unsuccessful negotiations to have the matter resolved and the tender finalised, Metro Security Services were forced to seek legal recourse to the matter, and have been locked in an ongoing legal battle with the municipality to gain clarity over why the tender was withdrawn and to have the issue finalised ever since.
An original PE High Court Order, made on the 6 May 2010, gave the municipality 14 days to finalise the tender contract. However, instead of doing so, Ntoba referred the matter back to the bid adjudication committee, without providing any reason for doing so.
Subsequently Metro Security Services approached the Port Elizabeth High Court under the access to information act to have all documentation relating to tender 45/5 for protection/ access control and escort services release to the company.
This application was heard on the 19 January 2011 and again the Port Elizabeth High Court ruled in favour of Metro Security Services and instructed the municipality to hand over “all documentation regarding decisions taken in respect of contract enquiry” within five days of the order. This was to include all written reports and recommendations of the bid evaluation committee and adjudication committee, as well as written decisions by the accounting officer and or the municipal manager.
After nearly 10 months of back and forth in trying to get all the relevant documentation, Metro Security Services is now once again forced to return to the High Court to uphold its original court ruling and instruct the municipality to hand over two outstanding documents, namely the internal audit report and an in house legal opinion relating to the security tender.
