uShaka Marine World, in Durban, has asked to use controversial section 36 of the municipal supply chain management policy.
|||THE controversial section 36 of the municipal supply-chain management policy – which in the previous financial year resulted in R469 million worth of contracts being awarded without going out on tender – could be used to buy a R848 000 “body tornado” water slide for Durban’s uShaka Marine World if eThekwini’s top brass approve the use of the policy.
A local company quoted uShaka R1.1m for the slide, over R267 000 more than it would cost the municipal entity to buy the slide directly from an international supplier.
The request from the uShaka Marine World management to use section 36 comes months after city manager S’bu Sithole called for the scrapping of this legislation and ruled that such contracts be used only in extraordinary circumstances.
Section 36 – used when the accounting officer deems it necessary to deviate from supply-chain management regulations – has been a talking point among councillors who felt it was being abused.
A task team has been set up to amend the policy.
A report to be tabled at Wednesday’s executive committee meeting states that the slides at uShaka are eight years old and the chances of attracting repeat guests are diminishing now that the new attraction at the Wild Coast has opened.
Motivating for the use of section 36, uShaka said there was only one slide manufacturer in the country which had provided all installations and repairs of slides at the theme park.
However, if it bought the slide directly from an international source, the cost savings would be huge.
The board of directors had approved the purchase directly from the international supplier and all that was left was for exco to approve the request.
DA caucus leader Tex Collins said: “At least they are coming to us saying they want permission to use section 36. If officials want to spend money exco would first like to see what it is the city is buying and who the supplier is. These are becoming the exception rather than the rule,” he said.
Finance and procurement chairwoman and exco member Fawzia Peer said the report was in line with an exco decision that all section 36 tender awards had to be approved by the committee to ensure “better control and oversight on how monies were being spent”. - The Mercury