Johannesburg - The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) appears to be dragging its heels on instituting civil damages claims against the construction companies that colluded on its projects and tenders.
Vusi Mona, the general manager of communications at Sanral, told Business Report last week that the legal process was well underway and progress had been made.
“As other entities of government, such as municipalities, the Department of Water and Sanitation, Transnet, etc, have been affected, the government will make an announcement in due course,” he added.
Both Mona and Sanral’s external communications consultancy failed to respond to specific questions related to the planned civil damages claims and also did not acknowledge or respond to a follow up request for a response.
Bloomberg reported last year that Sanral planned to file civil damages claims in June of that year against the implicated companies. Sanral previously confirmed that 12 construction companies, including joint ventures, were to face civil damages claims from the agency for collusion and bid-rigging on its tenders.
Alice Matthews, the company secretary and risk officer for Sanral, also confirmed in February last year that the process to calculate the damage to the public purse through independent legal experts and economists appointed by Sanral had been concluded.
Quantify damages
But Mona subsequently contradicted Matthews’ comments, stating the process to quantify the damages suffered by Sanral was part of the legal process and was “still under way”.
Murray & Roberts, Aveng, Basil Read, Raubex and Stefanutti Stocks all confirmed this month that to date they had not received any civil damages claim from Sanral. Group Five declined to comment on whether Sanral had lodged a civil damages claim against it, while Wilson Bayly Holmes Ovcon failed to respond to a request for comment.
The Competition Commission’s investigation into bid-rigging on 300 construction projects valued at R47 billion resulted in the Competition Tribunal in July 2013 confirming settlement agreements with 15 firms that agreed to pay penalties worth R1.46bn for collusive tendering. Among these settlements were 24 road rehabilitation and upgrading tenders issued by Sanral, including the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project.
Wayne Duvenage, the chairman of the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance, now the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), told the parliamentary portfolio committee on transport last month that the public was waiting for clarity on Sanral’s plans to prosecute and collect overcharges on road construction.
Duvenage said if Sanral’s debt from the overcharging prescribed, Sanral faced a potential class action. He said Sanral had been given an opportunity to claw back money on behalf of the public, and if people in public office failed in their duties, the public could come after them in their personal capacity for neglect of duty.
Some of the construction companies that were implicated by the Competition Commission’s investigation claimed privately that the collusion and bid-rigging did not inflate the price of tenders or projects because there were other “competitive bids” for the same projects not tainted by collusion.
In addition, they claimed there was a high volume of work available in the run-up to the 2010 Fifa World Cup and the construction industry’s capacity constraints and the collusion were aimed at allocating projects to ensure there was a valid tender process and the projects got completed, rather than inflating the tender price and project cost.
BUSINESS REPORT