The witness, Mr Sanyang, said the procurement of the buses was meant for bus services within the municipality, but clarified the records showed that KMC wanted an entity to provide the buses and do the services.
According to the witness, they had the funds available for the procurement and documents were signed by Nyima Camara, Sheriff Njie and Jaja Njie. The total cost of the KMC bus service was $117,134, which is equivalent to D170,134,000.
KMC claimed that the procurement was open for both national and international bidders, but the witness informed the Commission that he did not see any proof to substantiate KMC's claim that international traders were invited.
KMC contracts committee meeting of 21 November 2019 showed that they should go for restricted tender. KMC wanted to use expression of interest to shortlist the suppliers.
"If you say you are going to open it to international tender, why do you need an expression of interest?" Sanyang queried the idea of using expression of interest in this procurement process.
The witness indicated that KMC wrote to GPPA on 25 November 2019 seeking approval of the procurement, and GPPA wrote back to KMC asking them to open the tender and make it more competitive. GPPA gave approval for the bidding to be done using Open Tender and for the bidding documents to be Open Tender.
The bidding document indicated that it was a request for proposal, he added.
"There is no evidence of open tender in this transaction," Sanyang said, adding that this was contrary to the GPPA approval, which was open tender.
He testified that GPPA has a form (Form 013) for open tender and it has developed an evaluation form. He said KMC was obliged to use that form. CEO Sainabou Martin Sonko, Dawda Barry and Deputy Mayor Musa Bah signed the bidding documents. TK Motors, GTSC, TK Exports and Noflaye were the companies that bid.
Mr Sayang says KMC wrote to GPPA on 15 June 2020 informing them that the contract was awarded to Noflaye as the successful bidder. Sanyang added GPPA does not do evaluation, but they do verify how decisions were reached by councils.
Thus, GPPA raised concern in their document that KMC did not indicate the specification of the type of buses they wanted from the supplier, which is a requirement. GPPA also stated that the evaluation report was not detailed, as it did not capture the strengths and weaknesses of each of the bidders.
Mr Sanyang was questioned by the Commission why GPPA approved the contract when the documents submitted by KMC did not show any specification of the type of buses and also did not show how the award decision was reached by showing the strengths and weaknesses of the different companies that bid for the contract.
"If you have not approved it, they would not have gone ahead with the contract," Lead Council Yakarr Cox put to the witness.
"Yes, our role is to observe," Sanyang said.
"I am sorry, Mr Sanyang, your role is to approve," Counsel Cox held. Mr Sanyang agreed with her.
"You said the evaluation report was not detailed enough. How can you approve?" the counsel asked.
"Maybe, the person who gave approval was satisfied with other things in the document," Sanyang said.
