The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, overturned the controversial tender of the Office of the Chief Justice relating to its online case filing system.
Image: Jacques Naude / Independent Newspapers
The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, has overturned the tender awarded by the Office of the Chief Justice regarding the procurement of the online CaseLines project, following the subcontract which was earlier awarded to three senior OCJ officials who had, meanwhile, resigned.
The matter involved the award of a departmental tender to a company, Thomson Reuters (Professional) UK Ltd (TR), which had subcontracted to a local company whose shareholders were the three senior OCJ officials.
The OCJ lodged the self-review application after it emerged that some OCJ officials who were involved in various stages of the procurement process that led to the appointment of TR as the preferred supplier of CaseLines, stood to benefit from the contract as subcontractors to TR.
Meanwhile, the court this week declared the tender to be inconsistent with the Constitution, unlawful, and invalid.
The interim contract between the OCJ and TR, made by an order of court in August 2023, remains effective, pending the conclusion and coming into effect of a new contract for the provision of CaseLines between OCJ and TR.
The OCJ’s procurement of the CaseLines software, licences, resources, support, and maintenance from TR for the implementation of the Court Online solution was, meanwhile, declared to be a sole-source service provision.
In a statement issued by the OCJ, it welcomed the ruling and said the order vindicated the justice office’s longstanding opposition to the impugned contract and reaffirmed the organisation’s zero tolerance of fraud and corruption.
“The department looks forward to putting in place a lawful and valid contract for CaseLines in fulfilment of its mandate to provide support to the judicial system by rendering effective and efficient court administration services,” the OCJ said.
The court online system, where all matters before the court are filed electronically, is currently in use in Gauteng, and it is due to be rolled out to other provinces.
A procurement process was initiated in 2021 for the evidence management part of the court online system. Following a sole-source procurement process, the OCJ awarded a contract to Thomson Reuters to provide software, licences, resources, support, and maintenance for 60 months, commencing in April 2022.
The OCJ later noted that the three directors involved in the tender were its employees. By then, the three directors had already submitted their resignation letters to the OCJ and were serving their notice period.
Their subcontract between their company, ZA Square Consulting, and TR has, meanwhile, been cancelled. The three former employees are Nicolaas Coetzer, Nkosikhona Mncube, and Yvonne van Niekerk.
zelda.venter@inl.co.za