Hospitals coal contract reinstated

Johannesburg - A contract with a company that supplies coal to some North West hospitals has been reinstated after the North West High Court found that it was terminated incorrectly, the health department said on Friday.

Lorato Consultant T/A Lorato Constructions argued three weeks ago that the process undertaken by the department to collect samples from the coal delivered by the company was not correct, said provincial health spokesperson Tebogo Lekgethwane.

This was mainly because no company representative was present during the collection, just a company driver, who did not represent the company.

The matter was settled out of court a week later, Lekgethwane said.

Inferior quality

He said the department would continue to conduct quality tests on the coal supplied to its hospitals and would ensure that the correct procedure was followed.

The department said on 29 May that it had terminated its contract with the company because of low product quality.

Lekgethwane said: "The recent independent tests conducted show that coal delivered at Witrand, Klerksdorp, Tshepong and Wolmaransstad hospitals was of low or inferior quality."

Lekgethwane said the company had been warned previously about its non-compliance with the tender specifications and given an opportunity to rectify it. However, it had not done so.