26 Aug 2020

Botswana Power Cooperation (BPC) tenders are awarded through a competitive tendering process as per BPC Procurement Policy which is in line with the Procurement Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) Act says  Minister of Minerals resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Mr Lefoko Moagi.

Mr Moagi was responding  to a question from Nkange MP, Dr Never Tshabang.

He said Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction was found compliant with the requirements of the tender and subsequently they was appointed as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the refurbishment of Morupule A power plant.

He said in 2014, BPC invited pre-qualified bidders for the refurbishment of Morupule A Power Station (MAPS) on a lump sum price, turnkey basis.

He said four bidders submitted their proposals and were evaluated and found not suitable in terms of the technical completeness and responsiveness to the tender requirements as well as in commercial viability.

Mr Moagi said this led to   the re-tender and only three bidders responded and out of the three only two bids met the technical requirements of the tender.

However, he said that the tendered prices were considerably higher than the estimated budgeted amount and therefore the bids were commercially not viable.

He said this subsequently led to the consideration of other alternative procurement approaches.

He said the considerations included construction of a New Power Plant Unit adjacent to Morupule A and possible step–wise refurbishment of Unit 1-4.

He said the other approach was a detailed technical plant assessment by a contractor to define exact scope for further tendering.

Additionally, he said other consideration included refurbishment based on a cost reimbursable contract and the refurbishment with fixed basis scope and optional scope.

Mr Moagi noted that the refurbishment with fixed an optional scope was selected on favorable turnaround time and clarifications were sought from the two companies that were technically compliant.

He said after the financial evaluation, the revised prices were still high and not commercially viable and therefore the process was nullified and a direct procurement was followed to allow submission and evaluation of Doosan.

He further said Morupule A refurbishment had been completed and the plant was in commercial operation within the fixed scope.

Still in Parliament, Mr Moagi shared that Morupule B’s operations and maintenance services were also procured through a competitive bidding process involving an Expression of Interest (EoI) issued on December in 2012.

He said this involved a total of 16 international companies, eight responded to the EOI and three were shortlisted to submit detailed technical and commercial proposals. Mr Moagi said Steag Energy Services submitted and was subsequently awarded the contract for operation and maintenance services.

Dr Tshabang had asked how Doosan was selected for refurbishment of Morupule A power station and how many companies had tendered for the project, what were their quote prices and the reason for their selection.

He had also asked what had been incurred so far by the BPC in Morupule A Power station refurbishment and how Steag was selected for the operations and maintenance for Morupule B Power Station. ENDS