January 13, 2016
The South Burnett Regional Council today re-awarded a tender to build missing infrastructure on the failed Memerambi Estate to Newlands Civil Construction Pty Ltd.
The Toowoomba firm had submitted the second-lowest bid of $1,687,085 for the job.
The tender was originally awarded to Brown Construction Pty Ltd at Council’s December 9 meeting after the company submitted a bid of $1,456,301.
After the meeting Brown Construction advised the Council it had made an error in its calculations, and asked if it could resubmit a corrected tender.
Council officers agreed.
However, when the revised tender was received, officers found the company was no longer the lowest bidder.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Councillors unanimously rescinded the December 9 motion to award the tender to Brown Construction; and in a later motion, awarded the tender to Newlands Civil Construction instead.
Cr Damien Tessman, who seconded Mayor Wayne Kratzmann’s motion to re-award the tender, said the tender process had been conducted entirely by Council officers “at arm’s length” as prescribed by law.
No councillors had been involved in the process until they were called on to choose the winning tender.
“Some people on social media have been trying to claim Council staff are somehow responsible for this situation,” Cr Tessmann said.
“They are not. Our staff did their job properly.”
- Related article: Tender Error Causes Project Delay
