Ship management contract back up for grabs

DFFE reissues ship management tender that was cancelled in February

SOUTH AFRICA: Last week the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) re-issued a tender aimed at identifying a service provider to manage the SA Agulhas II and Algoa.

The tender was initially issued in October last year but cancelled in February 2024.

The management of DFFE’s fleet of vessels is currently split between SAMSA Special Projects and African Marine Solutions (AMSOL). Both entities responded to the tender last year and the new version is unlikely to attract any additional bidders.

Most of the changes to the new document are cosmetic and relate to grammatical corrections, but some noteworthy omissions and additions have been included within the listed mandatory requirements as well as the project plan and applied weighting for adjudicating bids.

The mandatory requirement for applicants to be registered with the South African Association of Ship Owners and Agents (SAASOA) included in the 2023 tender document has been removed from the new bid. This has decreased the mandatory requirements from four to three and could be seen as a move to accommodate SAMSA Special Projects who are not members.

In terms of adjudication and allocation of points related to a bidder’s enabling support infrastructure that includes premises, ship equipment stores as well as IT requirements – the threshold to achieve five points has increased from a five-year track record to an eight-year requirement.

Additional clauses have also been added to clarify the financial commitments and status of bidders and includes reference to the “financial health” of applicants – requiring companies to submit more insight into its performance, operations and cash flow.

One clause specifically calls on the bidder to “provide clear information on the financial standing of the organisation as well as details of existing customers together with the annual contract value”.

Both vessels included within the tender are currently under the management of AMSOL while SAMSA Special Projects is overseeing the management of DFFE’s patrol vessels as well as the research vessel, Africana.

The contract to manage and man the patrol vessels and the Africana came under the scrutiny of the Public Protector more than a decade ago after the fleet was transferred to the South African Navy when the then Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) was found to have awarded the contract irregularly to the Sekunjalo Group.

The vessels, which currently appear to spend more time in port than at sea, form part of the fleet of government vessels under the management of SAMSA Special Projects. It is likely that the government-run agency will seeking to expand their services to include the SA Agulhas II and Algoa in alignment with their mandate to oversee all State-owned vessels.

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