It emerges that Sekunjalo submitted four separate bids under different company and consortia names but with identical financial statements. Sekunjalo preferred bidder status was withdrawn by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries after the incumbent operator of marine patrols took to court.
Shaheen Moolla, a director of Feike, a Cape Town based independent natural resources advisory firm which provides legal advice to fishing companies, took the unusual step of posting a blog asking if Sekunjalo had broken any law or any JSE rules. Moolla said Sekunjalo had signed a form that stated that each bidder should not have any knowledge of any other competitor's bid contents. "Does this not constitute bid rigging?" he asked, adding that there had been four separate bids under different company and consortia names "but with identical financials."
Sekunjalo Investments will not comment on whether it will go through a second bidding process for the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries tender to run South Africa's marine patrol vessels. It is also not clear who will carry out the job from April because the incumbent provider's tender term ends this month, Business Report says.
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