According to the witness, the minimum duration for submission of bids for a contract is 14 days.
Testifying on the issue of the KMC Town Hall, the witness recalled that the contracts committee of KMC met in February 2022 to discuss the KMC Town Hall Project; the project cost was estimated at D6,000,000.
Sanyang further testified that the contract document was signed by Kajally Janneh, Nyima Janneh and Sheriff Janneh (Director of Finance). He added that they signed on different dates.
"On 27 January 2022, the contracts committee of KMC met to discuss the same issue again – the market infrastructure project. The budget was D5,000,000 but it was reduced to D3,500,000 because of the lack of subvention from the Government." Sayang affirmed.
He added that the procurement was divided into lots: Lot 1 - Furniture, Lot 2 - air condition and Lot 3 - furnishing of the interior.
Moving on, Sanyang also recalled that on 3rd February 2022, the contracts committee met again to discuss the budget and see how best funds could be raised for the KMC Town Hall project, since the D3,500,000 was not sufficient.
At the meeting, he explained that KajallyJanneh, the chairman of the meeting, informed them that D5,500,000 will be available for the project.
"KMC wrote to GPPA on 7 February 2022 seeking approval for the town hall project, and he also said they appealed for the bid submission dates to be shortened to seven (7) days. He said 7 days is too short because 14 days is the minimum."
Mr Sanyang stated that GPPA granted the procurement and the intended procurement method was also approved. The procurement they intended to use was open tender.
However, he Sanyang noted that there is no indication in their (GPPA) letter that the GPPA had approved the 7-day request. Ebrima Sanyang said KMC should have sought clarity from GPPA about the shortening of the period to know whether it was granted or not: “Bidding period should not be shortened to less than 14 days.
"It is not provided for in the law.”
Also testfying Phoday Jaiteh, director general of GPPA, said that lack of an express approval by GPPA for the shortening of the bid submission period means it was not approved.
“It cannot be assumed. KMC should not assume that,” Jaiteh said.
Jaiteh said the letter is clear as to what was approved and it was not.
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