NO FOUL PLAY IN CAA TENDER AWARD
‘That was pure malice from complainants and frankly incompetence from the PPDA for falling into that trap in the first place’ was the tenor of comments made off the record by sources close to the Civil Aviation Authority, when news broke yesterday that the tender award for the design of the aerodromes in Kasese and Gulu was finally cleared of any wrongdoings and misconduct.
Gauff Consulting had won the tender with the lowest quotations, upsetting a competing firm which according to the source had offered the highest prices for the services, only to cry foul when not being considered.
Sadly, the much needed redress of complaints, to the Inspector General of Government or to the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority is now habitually being used to vent individual or collective envy and greed symptoms when not successfully bidding for projects under public procurement rules, and has often been cited as a major cause for delays, in this case the long overdue improvements of two crucial aerodromes in border regions of Uganda, Kasese in the West along the border with Congo and Gulu in the North along the border with the now independent Republic of South Sudan.
According to the same source Gauff is now going ahead to prepare the design proposals ‘after they were punished for giving the best quotation through the bad use of provisions to complain’.
Expect further updates here on progress about the upcoming work and expansion of Uganda’s aviation infrastructure.
