Amabhungane Idt Mistrust: Bid 'manipulation' In R436m Road Tenders Puts Bulkeng Back In Spotlight

• IDT procurement documents seen by amaBhungane show signs of possible bid rigging in a R436 million set of KZN road rehabilitation tenders. Bulkeng, a company previously exposed by amaBhungane and Daily Maverick, scored the largest contract.
• Documents show how IDT officials seemingly arbitrarily awarded points to certain companies during the procurement process, how key documentation was seemingly ignored and how Bulkeng may have forged some of its bid documents.
• The IDT and the KZN Department of Transport have failed to answer questions on the process that saw a handful of companies seemingly hand-picked for the contracts for these key roads.
• News24 Business front page .

KwaZulu-Natal road rehabilitation tenders involving five companies, nine key roads and a combined R436 million appear to have been manipulated to favour certain companies.

The Independent Development Trust IDT handled the tender process on behalf of the provincial transport department.

One company, Bulkeng, clinched a R197 million contract the biggest of the lot.

The IDT seems to have an affinity for Bulkeng, with the company previously scoring the majority share of a problematic R800 million tender to supply oxygen plants to health facilities across the country.