20 Junie 2014
015 307 7248
www.bulletin.us.com
Bulletin
@laeveldbulletin
Hogwash!
There is hardly one word of truth in the supposed exposé in last week Friday’s edition of the daily newspaper The Citizen and yesterday’s Letaba Herald about a so-called scam involving the GTM, Quality Plant Hire (QPH) and Expectra 388 CC. The Bulletin has been made aware of allegations about the tender for the tarring of the road from Senakwe to Morapalala as well as certain other allegations of priority treatment of QPH and Expectra by the GTM. We started to investigate the allegations and found that internal politics played a major role in the campaign to discredit the GTM, QPH and Expectra. The Bulletin investigated the matter and then focused on obtaining documentary proof — like we always do in our in-depth investigations — to be
The Bulletin is in possession of a host of documents relevant to confirming the obvious and serious faux pas.
able to judge if there was indeed a case to be made out. We have documents to prove beyond doubt that just about every single statement in the newspapers’ reports is devoid of any truth (the Herald’s report was an obvious cut-and-paste replica of the Citizen’s report). We name a few and next week we will report in detail about the newspapers’ faux pas. • Next week we will continue to give more details about the project (and others). Don’t miss the Bulletin next week for the facts. * The lawyer for both QPH and Expectra, Mr Louis Erasmus of Thomas & Swanepoel, yesterday confirmed that their clients are considering legal action against the two newspapers.
Rural areas: FREE • Platteland: GRATIS
Fear lessl y the tr uth
R4
‘R38m tender scam’ is completely devoid of truth and substance The newspaper report alleges that: • The GTM deviated from the tender process. Not true; we have all the relevant documents to show that the GTM followed the correct procurement process; • Expectra was awarded a R38 million tar road project without submitting any formal tender. False. The tender document (of more than a hundred A4 sheets) of Expectra has been done to the letter, submitted in time and accepted by the GTM. • The appointment of the tender or instruction was never discussed with the municipal manager.... False. There is a vast body of documentary proof with the MM’s signature proving the opposite. • Other tenders worth almost R400 00 and over R500 000 respectively were issued irregularly. False. These figures refer to on-going service agreements for maintenance work and not to tenders. • The firms are owned by Ettienne Tolmay. Rubbish. We have obtained the necessary documents for both QPH and Expectra and the two CC’s have different members. Tolmay has no interest in Expectra. • A bill, of quantities showing an increase of 76% to the initial cost... A distortion and misplaced allegation. There are documents to prove that the resident engineer (for the GTM) as well as an independent third party (appointed by the GTM) performed an audit of a certain re-measurement of quantities. Both agreed that the re-measured quantities were correct and that Expectra is entitled to payment.
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