CSTB ordered to review tenders ed

By ADRIAN MATHIAS
THE Supreme Court has ordered the Central Supply and Tenders Board to review a contract it awarded a company to provide catering services to the PNG Defence Force.
The board had awarded the contract to the National Catering Services Holdings Ltd, one of the four catering service companies which applied.
Mountain Catering Ltd, also one of the companies which applied, asked the national court to order a review of the board’s decision arguing that it failed to follow due process. But this was refused.
The company then took the matter up to the Supreme Court which ruled that the board’s decision be reviewed.
Named as respondents were Frederick Punangi, the secretary to the department of defence, Bryan Kimmins, the chairman of the Central Supply and Tenders Board and its members, Patrick Pruaitch, the finance minister at the time, the National Executive Council and the National Catering Services Holdings Ltd.
The court heard that the board awarded the contract to the company based on Punangi’s recommendation.
But Mountain Catering Ltd argued in court that Punangi had altered or doctored a submission which favoured the other company contrary to section 42 (2) of the Public Finances Management Act of 1995.
Justice Stephen Kassman, sitting as single judge in the Supreme Court, found that the National Court erred in finding that there was nothing wrong in the awarding of the contract.
The supreme court found the board’s decision to award the contract based on recommendations by Punangi as improper and unlawful.
It ordered the board to re-consider the tenders, this time with particular reference to the Defence Technical Evaluation Committee’s report and submission, minus Punangi’s recommendation.
The court ordered the respondents to pay the appellant’s legal cost of the review and the National Court proceedings.
ENDS///…