The Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) has cancelled proposed K870 million staff houses renovation notice of awards after the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) had already approved them.

But MRA says they had to cancel the notice because works could not be completed within the current fiscal year which ends on March 31.

MRA Msonkho House

MRA marketing and communications manager Wilma Chalulu said the approval for the award of the works came towards the end of the 2021/22 fiscal year.

“The renovations were planned to be executed in the 2021-22 fiscal year. The procurement process for the works commenced in November 2021. However due to delays in the required procedures in different agencies, MRA only received approval to award the works in March 2022.

“Considering the government fiscal year now ends on March 31st, it became apparent that the works cannot be completed this year and utilise the funds that were allocated this year. The works were therefore cancelled

“The works will be reviewed again in 2022-2023 fiscal year and due process of identification contractor will be conducted accordingly. MRA is in the process of formally informing the concerned contractors in line with the procurement process and procedures.”

While some of the successful bidders have expressed fury over the cancellation and are demanding an explanation a procurement expert says the law allows cancellation of proceedings any time before award or without any loss, something that would not make MRA be liable to compensate them as the contract was not finalised and work was yet to start.

MRA on March 2 2022 published in the newspaper a notice of intention to award eight contracts for the renovation and rehabilitation of its 93 houses in Karonga, Mchinji, Chitipa, Dedza, Mangochi, Mulanje and Machinga districts.

The successful bidders were DBM Construction, Swaswa Civil Engineering, DEC Construction, Phale Building Contractors and Paramount Construction.

“The Malawi Revenue Authority wishes to inform all bidders and the general public that it has concluded the evaluation for the procurement of renovation and rehabilitation works of staff houses for the Authority,” reads MRA’s notice.

However, three days after the notice was published, MRA announced its cancellation.

In a response to a questionnaire yesterday PPDA spokesperson Grace Thipa confirmed that they granted MRA a No Objection to the contracts.

She said: “I can confirm that the PPDA received a request letter from MRA for the procurement of renovation and rehabilitation works of staff houses dated January 5 2022.

“The PPDA reviewed the request and on February 18 2022 and we granted a No Objection for MRA to proceed with the contract and other formalities to be complied with by public institutions.”

Phale Building Contractors was expected to rehabilitate seven houses at MRA’s Kaporo Station in Karonga at about K85.2 million and eight other houses at Muloza Border Post valued at around K52.6 million.

The firm’s managing director Dickson Chisapi said in an interview on Wednesday that even though the contracts were yet to be awarded, the cancellation has affected his company.

He said: “We have been inconvenienced in the sense that we started the preparations and abruptly they have cancelled the contracts. Imagine, we closed a fixed deposit account before it matured so that we can use the funds for the project.”

Another successful bidder, who asked not to be mentioned, wondered why MRA decided to announce the successful bidders, then suddenly cancel the notice of contract awards.

Said the source: “You can imagine the excitement; you tendered, you waited and jobs are published in the paper, people start congratulating you, you start mobilising and all of a sudden you read in the paper that the contracts have been cancelled without warning.”

DBM Construction was set to rehabilitate seven houses at Chitipa Border. The deal was valued at K92.1 million. The company was also expected to renovate a similar number of houses at Kaporo Station in Karonga pegged at K85.1 million.

On its part, Paramount Construction won a bid to renovate 15 staff houses at Dedza Border Post for about K126.9 million.

DEC was expected to renovate 20 houses at Mchinji Station at a cost of K148.8 million and another one valued at K76 million to rehabilitate six houses at Liwonde Station in Machinga.

Swaswa won a tender to renovate eight houses at Chiponde Boarder Post at a projected cost of about K72.5 million.

Procurement expert Anold Chirwa speculated that poor project conception or unavailability of resources could have resulted in MRA withdrawing the contracts.

Chirwa said though the MRA decision might have inconvenienced the successful bidders MRA would not be liable to compensate them because the contract was not yet finalised.

“The law provides that you can cancel proceedings any time before award without any loss whatsoever,” he said.

Section 46 (b) of the Act of 2017 reads in part: “A procuring and disposing entity may cancel the procurement proceedings in the public interest, without incurring thereby any liability to the bidders; and (c) terminate a procurement contract for convenience, if it is determined to be in the public interest…”

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