Mismanagement of tender for lodges in Ngorongoro

[hakitime]

Mismanagement of tender for lodges in Ngorongoro

Tender Process Report for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Tender for Permanent Tented Camps and Lodge

1. Summary
IN March 2007 the Ngorongoro Crater Area Authorities invited private investors to participate in a tender for sites in the Ngorongoro Crater Area for the development of Lodges and Permanent Tented Camps (PTC). The NCAA published formal tender procedures and installed a tender committee to manage the tender process and a technical evaluation committee with qualified field experts to evaluate the proposals, as is the customary procedure for tenders of this nature.

Unfortunately, the NCA management subsequently violated the Public Procurement Act and interfered or mismanaged the tender process in various ways, including but not limited to the following:
· Failure to follow correct submission procedures
· Permitting companies to enter the tender process after submission deadline date
· Changing tender conditions
· Disbanding Tender Committee
· Awarding sites that were not tendered
· Awarding sites to companies that entered the tender process after the submission date.

2. Background
The Ngorongoro Crater Area Authorities (NCAA) invited private investors to participate in a tender for sites in the Ngorongoro Crater Area for the development of permanent tented camps (Daily News February 2007).. The NCAA published formal tender procedures for the tender of 3 Permanent Tented Camps and one Lodge in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. This was advertised in the daily News on the 9th November 2006.
The sites advertised were:
· Nairbatat Tented Camp
· Esirwa (Eyasi Escarpment) Tented Camp
· Nainokanoka Tented Camp
· Empakaai Lodge
The deadline for the submission of the tender documents was17th March 2007.
The NCA extended the submission date until the 30th April 2007 as the time allocated to prepare the bids was not sufficient.

3. Opening Ceremony
The submission took place at the NCAA headquarters in Ngorongoro.
During the submission of the tender documents, the bidders were told that the NCA had a tender committee that will be dealing with the tender procedure and within 6 weeks the successful bidders will be announced. The NCA also announced that any unsuccessful bidders in this process will have another opportunity to invest as it had been agreed that more beds will be allocated and these also will be tendered.
During the submission 3 issues arose:
3.1. Failure to Separate Technical Proposal with the Financial Proposal
Some companies submitted their executive summary together with the financial proposal; this was differed to the directives issued in the Information Memorandum. The applicants agreed to witness the opening ceremony and not to control the bidding procedure.
The Information Memorandum for the Development of Tented Campsites provided by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (February 2007) required:
5. BID SPECIFICATIONS
The bid submitted shall comprise of Executive Summary, a technical and a separately seal financial proposals and a business plan.
3.2. Bid Security Failure
Many applicants failed to provide a bid security that was also required. The applicants agreed to witness the opening ceremony and not to control the bidding procedure.
The Information Memorandum for the Development of Tented Campsites provided by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (February 2007) required:
9. Financial Proposal
The Financial Proposal should state the amount the bidder is proposing to invest for the project……Furthermore the financial proposal should be attached with a bid security from a reputable potential investor which should not be less than 5% of the total investment costs for development of the Campsites or a Lodge being bid upon

3.3. Late arrival of applications
Two applicants arrived after the deadline period. These applicants requested the companies in the bidding process to accept the late arrival.
The late arrivals explained that they were not aware of the change in the deadline period.
Originally the deadline period was advertised as:
11. Bids must be received by the NCAA (Lessor) at the Address specified above not later than March 17th. 2007 at 16:00 hours Tanzania time at the place indicated herein.
All bids received by the NCAA (Lessor) after the deadline for submission of the bids prescribed by NCAA will be rejected and retuned unopened to the bidder.

The deadline date was changed as per letter circulated on the 26th February 2007
REF: EXTENSION OF SUBMISSION DEADLINE TO 30TH APRIL 2007
Please make reference to our letter of invitation and request for the proposal (RFP) for the Development if Tented Campsites and a Lodge in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) dated February 2007.

The submission deadline had been extended to the 30th April 2007 from 17th March 2007 as earlier stated in our Tender Document. Opening Ceremony will take place at 11.00 hours local time thereafter on the 30th April 2007. All other information and instructions to bidders remain unchanged.

The NCAA explained that if they were not aware of the change of dates, they would have submitted according to the original deadline date of the 17th March. It was agreed that the NCAA were to accept the envelopes unopened and to be returned to the bidder.


4. Attempt to open bids after the Opening Ceremony
The witness on behalf of the bidders was called the NCAA office after the opening ceremony at the end of May 2007. The NCAA requested the witness to attend the opening ceremony of some new applications. They explained that the new arrivals were due to:
o Applicants who had delivered their bids to the incorrect address in Arusha and not at the required address of the Ngorongoro Headquarters
o Applicants who had arrived late at the Ngorongoro Headquarters
The witness on behalf of the bidders explained that they could not witness such a procedure as it was contrary to the Public Procurement Act of 2004, with a supplement of 11th February 2005. The documents were not opened.

Section 66 states that:
Receipt of tenders and tender opening 66.-(1) The tender board that approved the issue of the tender documents shall receive tenders using procedures set out in the Regulations made under this Act.
(2) The Secretary to the tender board shall on request give each bidder a receipt showing the time and the date that the tenders were received, and any tender received after the deadline shall be returned unopened to the tenderer.
(3) All tenders submitted before the deadline time and date for submission shall be opened in public, in the presence of the tenderers or their representatives and other parties with a legitimate interest in the tender proceedings and the tender opening shall take place at, or immediately after the deadline time and date given in the tender documents for the receipt of the tenders and the names of all those present at the tender opening and the organisations they represent shall be recorded by the Secretary of the respective tender board.

5. Change of Tender Conditions
The tenderers received a letter dated 30th August 2007 explaining that the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority would like to improve the bid conditions of the tender, the letter explained:
The board of director has raised the minimum lease period to 33 years, in order to be in line with the government’s minimum land lease period.
Secondly, you were informed about the 10% concession fee per bed occupancy, which you readily agreed to pay. This is subject to revision.
However the board noted that the land-rent element was inadvertently omitted from the conditions which you were given to you and directed that this element should be included, but the amount was not fixed by the Board.
Instead, Management was directed to write to you to inquire as to what amount of rent you will be prepared to pay during the lease period of 33 years if you are successful in your bid.

This change of the tender did have some concerns raised by various parties:
Any committed investor would have had a longer term plan than 10 years as it stated that this was to be renewed and no serious investor would be looking at less than 10 years.
The original “The Information Memorandum for the Development of Tented Campsites” stated in the “Specific Leasing Objectives” paragraph 5 the following:
“To engage successful potential investor to manage the lodge for the whole period of the lease paying concession fees 10% of the room rate or any higher percentage as shall be determined from time to time and pay base rent as shall be proposed by the potential investor(s) in their submitted respective proposals and shall be agreed upon.”
Therefore they had already requested the tenders to submit in their financials their proposal for a base rent.
The new change omitted a secure procedure for submission, in technical terms the NCA had opened the financial bid again but failed to provide a secure and transparent submission. They failed to provide:
· A deadline for submission with the required date, place and time
· A transparent opening ceremony for all tenders to witness the authenticity of the submissions
· Directives to method of enclosing the new financials securely for the submission
All the above are contrary to the Public Procurement Act of 2004 that specifies clear regulations as the process of any public tender.
Various companies tried to contact the Tender Committee to request clear instructions to the submission of the new financials only to be informed that the Tender Committee no longer existed.

6. Awarding sites to Companies that did not submit tenders on time
We are of the understanding that several sites that were awarded, were awarded to companies that did not enter the transparent tender process, these companies submitted their documents months after the deadline date.
Companies that were not awarded sites have repeatedly requested a letter from the NCA updating and informing these prospecting investors of the outcome of the tender process. No company to-date has a letter.

7. Awarding more sites than originally tendered
Originally 4 sites were advertised and tendered. These were the development of Tented Camps (3) and the development of a lodge.
The sites were:
· Nairbatat Tented Camp
· Esirwa (Eyasi Escarpment) Tented Camp
· Nainokanoka Tented Camp
· Empakaai Lodge

However we are of the understanding that the following sites were selected and awarded to companies:
Lodge sites
· Nairbatat Lodge
· Lodge
· Nainokanoka Lodge
· Empakaai Lodge
Tented Camps
· Masek Tented Camp
· Nainokanoka Tented Camp
· Esirwa (Eyasi Escarpment) Tented Camp
Therefore the NCA did not enter a transparent and open tender process for ¾ of the sites that were allocated.

[Jonny]

This is interesting, what is the status now, has the goverment said anything of lately?
why are all these developments being built in Ngorongoro, will it not affect the natural habitat and the ecology there?

 

_________________
Opportunities are never lost, someone will take the ones you miss.

[hakitime]

The government are busy with the larger scandals that this one is slipping below the net. The rumours go that some of the NCAA leaders have issued themselves sites. Yes, this will have an impact on the environment and if it is mismanagement, then poor governance will have an impact on the Maasai there too. The minister is new and probably has not caught up with this one, the NCAA are being really quiet, they have not announced the new developments to anybody, hoping to keep it quiet, especially as it seems that the tides have changed and the government are taking scandals seriously?

[Jonny]

Hakitime, do you really believe that the government is really serious about corruption? To me a government that is truly serious about fighting corruption would be proactive about it and not just selectively reactive.
Why do I say selectively reactive?
Well look at the BOT scandal for example. That issue only came to light after a foreign accounting firm assigned by the IMF/WB pointed out the missing funds and they got kicked out as a result. The IMF, WB,CFGG, donors... then demanded answers and thats when the government had to act.
By the way all they have done is officially recognize the missing funds and fire the governor but no one has been charged with any crime and the money has not been returned. How effective is that?
The same goes with the Richmond situation, no one has been charged and no money has been returned!
One of the biggest scandals in TZ is also the mining contracts that the present government swore it would renegotiate for a much better deal or cancel them if the companies involved didn't want to play fair.
Its been 2 years now and we're are still getting 3% royalties.
There are many other issues but I think these are sufficient enough to show that the government is really not serious about corruption. They only selectively and seemingly engage in the fight against corruption when it is politically necessary or convenient do so.
what say you?
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_________________
Opportunities are never lost, someone will take the ones you miss.

[fillar munuo]

that is the problem of having so many relatives around.Everyone you try to protect because they do or they did some favors to you at one point.At what point do citizens wake up and say enough it is enough!!!If it is true some of "us" are considering ourselves clean hands why do we compromise that for someone's interest??If it is true tunauchungu na nchi yetu then what are we doing???What are we afraid for???

[hakitime]

Jonny,
I do think there is change taking place in the goverment right now, it is not always that easy to make the change, like Fillar says, ndio shida ya ndugu zetu...however I think things are changing and parlament has shown it's teeth. I believe that this will continue.. let us see as I hear that the new minister has been made aware of this scandal and so let us keep an eye on the news??

[hakitime]

Without our goverment protecting these areas of natural beauty from poachers and irresponsible developers, have we sold out our parks and reserves?

[Jonny]

Marketing our natural beauty and heritage is not necessarily a problem, its a matter of how it is done and what is actually marketed that is the problem.

 

_________________
Opportunities are never lost, someone will take the ones you miss.

[mambo poa]

What would one expect from the NCAA, years of deals going on and not much action, this looks like one of many, the NCAA needs an audit on it's management. Are they conservationists for the land or their own bank account?

[mambo poa]

Amid all the allegations of corruption including the recent allegation on Chenge, the rumor in the street is that the NCAA tenders have be recalled, maybe the fight for corruption in Tanzania is deep and the government are serious at cleaning up the house?

[Mkakati]

It is different in bongo these days. No one expected this much kasheshe. People are not sure if this is a result of the government getting serious about corruption or is it simply CCM people fighting among themselves in addition to pressures from opposition?
Even kingpins like Rostam, Chenge & Nkono are being shaken.

 

_________________
"A brain is a terrible thing to waste."

[mfawidhi]

Have you seen Arusha Times jamani? There is no possibility that they will recall the tenders. One lodge has been given to The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority board chairman Pius Msekwa and Bernard Murunya, the chief conservator. The NCAA is a cash for CCM so these people will not give it up. The Arusha Times has reported "There are reports that Ngorongoro conservation area is earmarked for new hotel projects some of which are to be built around the crater rim despite environmental concerns. " So more hotels on this rim and at the crater, and I am sure with no tender.