Fire engine supplier withdraws contract with City
JOHANNESBURG – The city of Johannesburg has expressed its disappointment at the withdrawal of a company that was meant to supply fire engines for the fire trucks of the city.
The City of Johannesburg has embarked on a fire engine replacement programme to increase its Emergency Management Services’ (EMS) firefighting capacity.
This was said to have been because of the state of affairs of the firefighting services which was further exposed by the raging fire that engulfed the Bank of Lisbon building in September last year, claiming the lives of three of the City’s firefighters.
In a statement, the City stated that after discovering serious procurement irregularities and allegations of corruption, the current administration decided to terminate the initial fire engine supply contract which was concluded by the previous administration.
“A new fire engine replacement programme was formulated and implemented prior to the Bank of Lisbon building fire. Due to the complicated nature of this specialised vehicle procurement project, specification had to be re-designed and adjudicated by a committee which went all the way to the Executive Adjudication Committee (EAC) for determination of the winning bid. This was another lengthy process,” read the statement.
MMC for Public Safety, councillor Michael Sun said when the City initiated the new Fire Engine Replace Programme, they were excited to share the progress of the procurement as it meant that the end of Joburg’s fire engine shortage was in sight. This would have meant that the City’s EMS would be better equipped to deliver fire rescue services.
The City stated that days before the highly anticipated announcement of the winning bid, the City of Joburg received a formal letter from the supplier indicating their withdrawal from the process. This meant that the procurement process would have to be re-advertised.
“We are extremely disappointed by this outcome and the expected further delay to the process of
delivering new fire engines. After becoming aware of the situation, an urgent meeting was
immediately called to implement Plan B, which seeks to expedite the procurement process,” said
Sun.
The City of Joburg apologised for the inconvenience that this delay had caused.
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