supplier

There was a valid procurement and approval process for the forklift, but the supplier failed to deliver and was paid, requiring money to be recovered from the supplier.

“there was a proper requisition and it was approved at all levels . The issue is the failure to deliver by the supplier and the money must be recovered from that supplier because they failed to deliver but they have been paid”

The failure of the supplier to deliver the forklift after payment is a breach of contract, a civil matter, not criminal.

“The supplier did not deliver. A further investigation into the matter must be conducted in order to recover the monies paid to that supplier ... It appears to be simple breach of contract ... A civil, not criminal matter .”

The accounting officer, even if signing off without picking up irregularities, must raise valid errors and take the decision to cancel the bid; the City will then deal with any court challenge from bidders accordingly.

“Even if you pick up an error from the beginning of the process, you have a duty to raise that ... If it is an error that is valid, that might lead to a regularity, you cannot ignore that. We do take a decision to cancel that bid. We then leave that on us on any supplier who says, no, but you should not have cancelled this bid ... If a bidder chooses to take the City to court, we will then deal with it at that stage ... That is the process that we follow at the City from a practical perspective.”

Procurement processes can cause confusion for lawyers between quotations and purchase orders; a purchaser asks suppliers for a quotation, then issues a purchase order as an official order backed by the quotation and pricing.

“maybe what has caused confusion for lawyers is in some procurement processes , a purchaser would ask for a quotation from a supplier ... and the supplier provides a quotation ... And they then issue a purchase order based on that quotation”

The purchase order contains reference, amount and quantity details, and when accepted by the supplier, goods are delivered and invoiced accordingly.

“in their purchase order they say that is the reference , that is the amount , it is this number of goods ... When it gets accepted by the supplier , they then deliver the goods and an invoice follows”

Sergeant Nkosi intervened voluntarily in a payment dispute between the CFO and a disgruntled supplier after overhearing a call.

“The CFO did not need me to intervene. I volunteered. I do not want to push a narrative that it seems the CFO wanted me to intervene.”

Sergeant Nkosi overheard the CFO complaining to a disgruntled supplier about non-payment issues and decided to assist by ensuring payment was processed.

“I was only helping the CFO with the frustration that the service provider was threatening to take the city to court. So, as a result, the CFO was getting frustrated... That is how I intervened.”