The Roads Authority (RA) has extended the expired bid validity period for the tender to rehabilitate some sections of the M1.

RA and bidders have both confirmed the extension of the bid validity period, which expired in November last year.

RA spokesperson Portia Kajanga said the extension will allow them to conclude procurement processes.

The tender for the four sections on M1 opened in July 2021 and had a bid validity period of 120 days which expired in November 2021.

On February 7 this year, RA wrote to all participating bidders to extend the bid validity period. The current bid validity period, according to the letter from RA to bidders, is from February 28 2022 to April 30 2022.

However, a source from the Ministry of Transport, who opted for anonymity,

Some parts of the M1 require expansion and rehabilitation

 said RA is in breach of regulations as interpreted by Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) that the bid validity period can only be extended prior to expiry and not when it has expired.

He said: “PPDA’ s interpretation of regulation 48 is the standard all procuring entities must follow.

“One would, therefore, consider RA’s action a nullity because it is in violation of the law. What would have been done was to re-tender this to keep

 up with the spirit of the regulation.”

The source said the PPDA interpretation of regulation 48 set a new precedent because all along, expired bid validity periods have been extended.

For example, in a in a letter dated December 15 2021 signed by director general Edington Chilapondwa, PPDA refused to allow the Ministry of Transport and Public Works to extend the bid validity period for the Marka-Bangula railway project because it had expired based on Regulation 48 of Public Procurement Regulations (2020).

The ministry was forced to re-tender the project.

In an earlier interview, Minister of Transport and Public Works Jacob Hara said his ministry erred after publishing notification of intention to award Mota-Engil a K48 billion contract for the upgrading and rehabilitation of the 72-kilometre Marka- Bangula railway line after the expiry of the bid

 validity period.

“What I have seen is that I think we have been breaking the law all the time and that was incorrect. I thought that the best way to correct these things is not by repeating the mistakes.

“We want to follow the law and from now onwards, we will make sure that we do everything within the bid validity period,” said Hara.

Asked why RA, which falls under his ministry, has been allowed to extend an expired bid validity period, he said he was not aware of the development as they were yet to bring the issue to his attention.

PPDA director general Edington Chilapondwa, who wrote the earlier letter to the Ministry of Transport, said he was outside the country and said he had directed our questionnaire to his deputy Irene Mlewa.

However, Mlewa said she needed more time before responding to the issue.

The rehabilitation project of the M1 is divided into four sections from Kamuzu International Airport to Kasungu, Kasungu to Jenda, Jenda to Mzimba Turn-Off and Kacheche to Chiweta.

In November 2019, the Malawi Government and the EU signed a financial agreement for 139 million euro (about K129 billion) as contribution towards the rehabilitation of over 347 kilometres of the M1.

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