The Civil Engineering Contractor November 2018 | Page 31

INSIGHT
village; access via a network of roads and bridges for
foot and vehicle traffic; a number of existing houses
and a prison will need to be relocated; and bulk
powerlines and telecoms for the project, including
to fire up the TBMs. Contracts will involve the two
main works: the dam itself and the tunnel.”
Rigorous tender process
Tente points out that notwithstanding its operational
success, Phase I had been characterised by allegations
of corruption, and the current project therefore
needs to restore credibility. Consequently, the
evaluation scoring process looks at three steps:
compliance, quality check, and price. Section 10 of
the agreement provides that the order of preference
in the granting of contracts will be: Lesotho firms
first; South African next; and SADC firms thereafter.
This had caused a legal challenge in Lesotho, when
local firms formed a consortium that had a different
interpretation of the Phase II Agreement to that of
the LHDA in terms of allocation of work packages.
This challenge had melted away in just the past
few days, Tente pointed out, when the consortium
withdrew its case from the roll. The agreement
stipulated that contracts could only be awarded
on the basis of competitiveness, transparency, and
appropriate competence. “We have developed a
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