Latest news with #tenderprocess
CTV News
19 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
SAAQclic: former employee defends integrity of tender process
Commissioner Denis Gallant of the Commission of Inquiry into the Management of the Modernisation of the Société de l'assurance automobile (SAAQ) IT Systems awaits the start of the public inquiry into the failures of the SAAQclic platform, under the watchful eye of chief prosecutor Simon Tremblay, in Montreal, on Thursday, April 24, 2025. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press) On Tuesday, a former employee of the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) defended the integrity of the tender process for the development of the SAAQclic platform, saying no one was subjected to undue pressure to select suppliers. Jean-Marc Perrotte testified before the Gallant Commission, which is investigating the failures of the Crown corporation's digital transformation. He was a member of the selection committee that recommended awarding the contract to the consortium formed by SAP and LGS in 2017. 'As a member of the selection committee, I never experienced any interference, either internally within the company or externally,' he said. 'And to my knowledge — you could ask them — I have not heard any rumours that anyone exerted any pressure on the seven of us to choose the alliance we chose.' The former employee worked on the SAAQ's IT project, known as CASA, after his involvement in the tendering process. He left the company to retire in July 2018. Last week, the commission revealed documents referring to 'an appearance of favouritism' and 'a perception of favouritism towards one alliance' among certain members of advisory committees. The purpose of the committees was to advise the selection committee on specific aspects of the bids received. Among the members of these committees were external consultants hired to prepare the tendering process. SAAQ executive Nicolas Vincent, who oversaw the advisory committees, testified on this subject last week. He said that 'a perception' emerged 'that those who had prepared the tender were favouring a solution from SAP,' the software provider. Perrotte was also a member of one of the advisory committees. He recalled the presence of external resources who took up more space and evaluated bids with lower scores than other committee members during a meeting. After reporting this situation to the SAAQ's contract management team, Perrotte said he never saw these external individuals again at subsequent meetings. This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 3, 2025.
News24
4 days ago
- Business
- News24
Lottery decision: South Africans deserve to know details of SA's biggest tender
There are some things that are totally predictable in South Africa. Jacob Zuma will find a reason to drag out his trial. Helen Zille will say something stupid and inflammatory. Julius Malema will say something stupid and inflammatory. Cyril Ramaphosa will be shocked. The PSL season will end in chaos. And Johannesburg's traffic lights will flake out during the summer rains. There is an argument that societies should be grateful for predictability, as it enables them to plan. If that predictability is negative, then you can work on overcoming the deficiency and, if it is in the positive, then you can work on improvements. But there is nothing good when that predictability is costly and eminently avoidable. This is the case with the selection of the operator of the National Lottery. This newly chosen entity will be the fourth operator of the lottery in the country. Each time the process for the running of what has been described as the country's 'biggest tender' is about to reach conclusion, it is blighted by a flurry of legal challenges. The challengers range from the incumbent to the line-up of fresh bidders who have invested enormous amounts of cash in the expensive bidding process for the eight-year licence that almost literally allows you to print money. The current process has been mired in the same predictable controversy, only messier. After an inordinate amount of time spent making his decision in conjunction with the National Lotteries Commission, Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau eventually named the Sizekhaya consortium as the winner. To underline the shambolic nature of the process, Tau made the announcement just three days before the expiration of the current licence, after being forced to do so by the Pretoria High Court. Judge Sulet Potterill shot down Tau's attempt to delay the announcement by a year while the lottery is run by a temporary holder – most likely a sister company to the incumbent, Ithuba. Saying the process was 'very complex', Tau justified his decision (or indecision) on the grounds that, 'in the past, serious allegations of corruption were made in respect of the National Lotteries Commission and the way the lottery was managed. These considerations prompted me to take a very cautious approach.' Potterill was having none of it and ordered him to announce the winner by yesterday, when Ithuba's licence was set to expire. When he made his declaration, Tau left the winner with just three days to get its ducks in a row, instead of the five to six months it would need. To complicate matters, Ithuba – the only entity with the capacity to step in until Sizekhaya is ready – has been refusing to continue working for the next five months and is insisting that it will only make commercial sense if this period is much longer. With accusations of political bias whirling, the integrity of the process is in tatters. Months and even years of litigation are inevitable. Build One SA and other societal players have called on Tau and the National Lotteries Commission to disclose to Parliament, and therefore to the nation, the records of the adjudication that delivered the final outcome. 'Party connections and insider deals cannot be the order of the day,' Build One SA's Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster said this week.
ABC News
21-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Conflict of interest allegation hovers over Ord Valley cotton partnership
A corporate law expert says hard questions need to be asked due to a conflict of interest in the award of a lucrative contract within Western Australia's emerging cotton industry. Traditional owners in the Kimberley have questioned the independence of a tender process to develop 675 hectares of farmland in the Ord Valley, after discovering Duxton Farms was awarded the joint-venture partnership with Indigenous body MG Corporation while Paul Burke was on the board of both companies. Duxton Farms, an ASX-listed company, produces cereal crops, cotton, wool and livestock at leased and owned properties across Australia. Mr Burke declined to be interviewed for this story. He featured in a program by the ABC's Four Corners last year that aired revelations of large-scale land clearing in the Northern Territory and free water licences, and highlighted the existence of a quasi-government entity, the NT Land Corporation. The corporation manages about 600,000 hectares of land for economic development and has released the three largest parcels of land in the territory's history. In 2020 the NT Land Corporation consulted with the NT Farmers Association, for which Mr Burke was chief executive at the time, to find developers for the land. One of the successful development applicants was Duxton Farms, which appointed Mr Burke as a director in 2023. Mr Burke told Four Corners at the time he was not involved in the decision-making process and any conflicts of interest were declared. Further investigation by the ABC has now found Duxton Farms has entered into an agreement with prominent traditional owner group MG Corporation to develop and farm two lots of land in WA's Kimberley owned by native title holders. A cotton crop has been planted on one of the lots, estimated to be worth more than $1.2 million. There is no reference to this agreement on the websites of MG Corporation or Duxton Farms, or in Duxton Farms' announcements to shareholders. Without access to information about the joint venture, ASIC could not comment on whether this breached Duxton Farms' obligations to shareholders. Mr Burke sits on the board of both organisations. He does not appear on the MG Corporation website page listing the board of directors. However, the ABC has seen documents that show he is an independent director. Helen Bird is a corporate governance specialist at the Swinburne Law School. She said Mr Burke's absence on the MG Corporation website was legal, but she had questions for the corporation about it. "Why wouldn't you be saying there's a justification for why this particular person has been appointed, given he's got a very strong association with someone you're entering into a lease agreement with?" MG Corporation declined to be interviewed but provided a statement to the ABC. "All proper processes were followed throughout the tender period," the statement read. "As soon as it became apparent that there was a conflict of interest whereby one of MG Corporation's independent directors, Paul Burke, was also an independent director on the board of one of the companies tendering for the lease, Mr Burke immediately excluded himself from the process." The Indigenous corporation said it followed proper governance procedures. MG and other Aboriginal corporations are regulated by the federal government's Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC). In a statement, ORIC said individual directors were responsible for identifying and declaring when they had a conflict of interest. "It is up to the rest of the board to decide how to manage a conflict of interest," the statement read. Miriwoong woman and past MG Corporation employee Candice Peart is a traditional owner of the land included in the joint venture. She was involved in submitting an unsuccessful application for traditional owners of the region to farm the land. Ms Peart said native title holders were not consulted on the results of the application process. "We are left in the dark." Ms Bird said there was a clear conflict of interest at play. "You can't wear two hats in the one transaction, that's why there's a conflict," she said. "And it's very similar to someone buying and selling land when you're representing both interests, you simply can't do it." Ms Bird said there was a grey area around whether removing Mr Burke from discussions about the joint venture was sufficient. Ms Bird said if MG Corporation was a public company, it would be obliged to provide accountability under the Corporations Act. "The fact they're private means those obligations are far less imposing, but it's still people's money, it's still people's livelihoods and it's their own Indigenous people they need to be looking after first and foremost," she said.
