Sanral sub-contractors revealed

The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) released a list of the sub-contractors for the e-tolling of Gauteng’s roads after media reports that the legal team of the Opposition to Urban Tolling (Outa) had to sign a confidentiality agreement to view the contract documents for the project. The roads agency also defended the practice to keep some of the information confidential.

“Amid widespread speculation about the confidentiality agreement that was signed regarding the Gauteng e-toll contract documents, Sanral categorically denies that the agreement was designed to conceal information from the public,” the roads agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

Sanral said that the information requested by Outa was the intellectual property of third party organisations and that “standard practice” was that contractual undertakings of confidentiality are given to these parties when the contracts were concluded.

Sanral also said that the pricing of the open road tolling contract with ETC to run the e-tolling system, is and has been available on the agency’s website since June 2012.Moneyweb did a search on the Sanral website, but was not able to immediately locate this information.

Outa commented on Tuesday, saying that it has signed a confidentiality agreement to keep the information contained in the contracts out of the public domain so that it can prepare for the review before the High Court, but that Sanral would have to apply to the High Court to keep the information confidential at the time of the hearing.

Sanral said that it is “determined to adhere to and respect the integrity of the legal process and the positive pronouncement by the Constitutional Court in relation to the rights of the parties in this matter”.

Wayne Duvenhage from Outa

Sanral also took a dig at Outa, which is currently trying to raise funds for the legal process from the public and other corporate entities, saying that it “remains concerned about on-going statements made in the media about various aspects of this matter, which appear to be designed to cast doubt on the process and litigate the matter rather in a court of public opinion as part of an ongoing fund raising exercise”.

“This tabloid-like approach to the issues placed in dispute by Outa is unfortunate as it undermines the court process and the constitutional rights of those involved,” the roads agency said.

Sanral said that the contract for the design, build and operation of the tolling system is between itself and ETC and that it is not with any sub-contractors.

“The lead contractor has sub-contracted work to various other companies,” Sanral said (see table below), but added that the list may change as “circumstances warrant during the course of the contract”.

Source: Moneyweb

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