R1bn tender awarded to Zuma funder

Johannesburg - A R1.25bn contract to supply electricity meters to the City of Johannesburg was manipulated to benefit Durban businessman Vivian Reddy, said to be a close friend of President Jacob Zuma, according to a report on Friday.

According to the Mail & Guardian a number of key discrepancies in the contract had been uncovered.

There were detailed allegations that an initial technical evaluation scoresheet was amended to improve the results for Reddy's company, Edison Power.

The revised scoring had pushed another bidder, Hefcom, below the cut-off 70% technical score.

When price was factored in Hefcom would have scored better than Edison. Hefcom's bid was also half the cost of Edison's.

According to the Mail & Guardian, a letter informing Edison it had won the bid was dated before City Power, the City of Johannesburg's utility, supply chain management even received the bid recommendation or the chair of the adjudication committee had signed off on the decision.

Edison's share of the contract was increased from the initial recommendation of a R600m share of an R800m contract to an exclusive contract for R1.25bn.

The City and its utility City Power, which procured the meters, had denied any irregularities, according to the newspaper.

According to the report there was no evidence suggesting foul play on the part of Reddy or Edison.