No Fear No Favour No Corruption..........
04 April 2013 | Riaan van Zyl
In a saga that has al the makings of a mini-arms deal the City of Johannesburg has committed itself to a tender that will enrich the well known ANC donor Vivian Reddy.
From reports serving before the City of Johannesburg Council meeting of the 20 March further information emerged on the contracts that were awarded to Edison Power Gauteng with Itron for R1,45 billion over three years last year, and for R55 million with Itron Metering Solutions.
Addressing the Council on the Mid-term report for City Power, DA Councillor Dennis Hunt said that these contracts arise out of a tender that was issued for 2 000 automatic remote metering (AMR) meters.
"The tender accepted was for R38 million corresponds to R18 000 per meter."
Hunt told the Council that at that price automatic remote metering (AMR) is far from sustainable and wanted to know why the lowest tender for R9 milllion corresponding to R4 500 per meter was not chosen. This was for meters successfully supplied in Botswana to the South African specification.
Hunt told the Council that at that price automatic remote metering (AMR) is far from sustainable and wanted to know why the lowest tender for R9 milllion corresponding to R4 500 per meter was not chosen. This was for meters successfully supplied in Botswana to the South African specification.
“How was the contract increased to become R1,25 billion? This looks like a contravention of the Municipal Finance Act. At that price it must cover about 80 000 meters, which will provide for half of the domestic customers on conventional metering," explained Hunt.
The information previously made available on this matter and reported on in the media on 18 January was that a contract was approved for R800 million by the City Power Board which suggests that there were two changes to the scope of the tender, once to increase it from R38 million to R800 million and then further to R1,25 billion.
The information previously made available on this matter and reported on in the media on 18 January was that a contract was approved for R800 million by the City Power Board which suggests that there were two changes to the scope of the tender, once to increase it from R38 million to R800 million and then further to R1,25 billion.
“Further, why was a meter under glass specified when that is not the South African standard which is based on a keypad? Why are these meters being imported when there is more than adequate manufacturing capacity in South Africa? Where is the commitment to jobs and the South African economy," Hunt wanted to know from the Council.
Prepaid meters have been manufactured in South Africa since 1996, and the Standard Transfer Specification (STS) protocol has been accepted internationally.
The Record asked City Power to comment but got an elusive and sometimes confusing answer from Sol Masolo, Spokesperson for City Power: "This mail serves to deal with some of the questions raised in your mail which include whether smart meters will assist in alleviating the billing challenges in the city. (This was only one of the questions asked and no comment was given on above allegations).
The smart meters will improve the accuracy of meter reading for our customers. The accuracy itself will lead to the reduction in the billing challenges that the city is currently experiencing.
This is a project which will be rolled out only in the City of Johannesburg and is not forced as your mail suggests (The question was whether the smart meters will be rolled and whether prepaid will be the only option as Tshwane is planning to do).
The City of Johannesburg will therefor only roll out the project in the city and not outside of Johannesburg. Once the project is completed customers will receive more accurate accounts for services consumed and as such we envisage a more improved relations between our customers and ourselves.
The smart meters remove the need for our meter readers to enter customer homes to read meters, instead meters will be read remotely without interfering with our customers' lives.
The company that was awarded the tender has gone through a vigorous tender process to get to the stage where it was selected. This is an open competitive tender which allows a number of companies to compete for a tender which is advertised in the newspapers.
Thanks for sending me the statement from the Democratic Alliance, I however believe that the statement makes this matter a political subject which I believe should be left to politicians to comment on.
It is therefore important that I state that from a City Power point of view this was an open tender which is ultimately awarded to a company that satisfied all our requirements".
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Comments by Sonny
Cable theft is rift in Gauteng.
Corruption is unacceptable.
What is the use of an intelligent meter box without power cables and power?
The Major and City Power must get their act together and stop ripping Johannesburg resident off.
After a power outage due to stolen cables residents were visited by a "City Power Agent" who demanded seeing
their 'Prepaid meters' but did not know of the outage the previous night?
POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND NOT TO CITY POWER AND THEIR TENDER COMRADES!
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